大干 (dà gàn) — go all out; work vigorously

Definition

A separable verb meaning 'go all out / work vigorously', used for large-scale effort (projects, campaigns). Splits with -起来 for the inceptive sense ('get going all out'), as in the examples.

verb
go all outwork vigorously
Easily confused

Examples

  • 。
    Tā men zhǔn bèi dà gàn yì chǎng.
    They are preparing to go all out.
  • ，大干。
    Wèi le wán chéng zhè ge gōng chéng, dà jiā dà gàn le bàn nián.
    In order to complete this project, everyone went all out for half a year.
  • 大干，。
    Zhǐ yào dà gàn qǐ lái, jiù yí dìng néng chéng gōng.
    As long as we go all out, we will definitely succeed.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

大dàgreatly
干gānwork

大 means great, and 干 means work, so the term describes vigorous effort.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

Open 大 →

The simplified 干 stands for more than one traditional character. In most words (饼干, 干杯) it is 乾; in others (干, 干活儿) (干扰) it is 幹 or 干.

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 乾; 干 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
乙乙yǐ
Sound part声符shēngfú
倝
倝gàn乾gān
Same sound today
Open 干 →

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