够

Etymology & Components

The Chinese character 够 (gòu) is composed of two parts: the radical 犬 (quǎn), which means "dog", and the phonetic component 苟 (gǒu), which has the same pronunciation as 够 but does not carry any additional meaning in this context. The combination of these two components suggests the idea of a dog reaching or grasping something, which is the original meaning of the character. Over time, the meaning of 够 has expanded to include the concepts of "enough", "sufficient", and "capable of reaching or achieving something". In modern Chinese, it is commonly used as a verb, an adjective, or an adverb. For example, it can be used in sentences such as "我够不着那个东西" (wǒ gòu bu zháo nà ge dōngxi, "I can't reach that thing"), "这个钱不够买这本书" (zhè ge qián bù gòu mǎi zhè běn shū, "This money is not enough to buy this book"), and "他够聪明，能解决这个问题" (tā gòu cōngmíng, néng jiějué zhè ge wèntí, "He is smart enough to solve this problem").