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合伙 (hé huǒ) — to form a partnership; to act jointly

Definition

合伙 means to form a business partnership — friends or colleagues pooling money to run a venture together. Stronger than 合作 (general cooperation) and more commercial than 联手 / 携手 (join forces).

verb
to form a partnershipto act jointly

Examples

  • 合伙。
    Wǒ men hé huǒ kāi le yì jiā xiǎo gōng sī.
    We formed a partnership and opened a small company together.
  • 合伙。
    Jǐ gè péng you hé huǒ mǎi le yí tào shè bèi.
    A few friends jointly bought a set of equipment.
  • 合伙。
    Tā men hé huǒ jīng yíng zhè jiā cān tīng yǐ jīng sān nián le.
    They have been running this restaurant in partnership for three years now.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

合héjoin
伙huǒpartners

合 means to join and 伙 means partners, so the sense is to join together as partners.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

合 shows 亼 and 口 arranged as two mouths speaking together.

Open 合 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 夥; 伙 is its simplified writing.

The simplified 伙 stands for more than one traditional character. In most words (大伙儿, 伙) it is 夥; in others (小伙子) it is 伙.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
多多duō
Sound part声符shēngfú
果
果guǒ夥huǒ
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 夥 combines 多 (many) with 果 as a sound part. The simplified 伙 is a shorthand, so its parts are not the historical parts.

Open 伙 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9HSK 2.0 Level 6Business & Commerce

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