归功 (guī gōng) — to attribute (success) to, to give credit to

Definition

Means to credit or attribute (success, achievement) to a person or cause — always followed by 于. Used positively for success; the negative counterpart is 归咎于 (blame).

verb

to attribute (success) toto give credit to

Examples

归功。
Zhè cì de chéng gōng yào guī gōng yú dà jiā de nǔ lì.
This success should be attributed to everyone's efforts.
。
Tā bǎ suǒ yǒu de chéng jì dōu guī le gōng yú tuán duì.
He attributed all the achievements to the team.
归功。
Wǒ men bù néng bǎ shī bài guī gōng yú yùn qì bù hǎo.
We cannot attribute the failure to bad luck.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

归guīattribute

功gōngmerit

归 means attribute and 功 means merit; together they express giving credit for success.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 歸; 归 is its simplified writing.

𠂤帚歸

𠂤𠂤𠂤ancient form of {{zh-l|*師|troops}}
帚帚zhǒubroom; sweep

The traditional form 歸 combines 𠂤 (troops) and 帚 (broom; sweep) to show sweeping away an enemy and returning; the simplified 归 is a later abbreviation.

Open 归 →

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

工力功

Meaning part形符xíngfú

力力lìstrength

Sound part声符shēngfú

工

工gōng功gōng

Same sound today

功 puts 力 (strength) beside 工, which gives the sound gōng and means labour or work.

Open 功 →

Appears in