恭喜 (gōng xǐ) — to congratulate | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

Used like 'congratulations!' — a set phrase for congratulating someone on good news. 祝贺 is the more formal, written equivalent; 祝 is a general 'wish (someone) well'.

verb

to congratulate

Examples

恭喜。
Wǒ gōng xǐ nǐ tōng guò le kǎo shì.
I congratulate you on passing the exam.
恭喜。
Dà jiā gōng xǐ tā jié hūn le.
Everyone congratulated him on getting married.
恭喜。
Wǒ men gōng xǐ nǐ qǔ dé le hǎo chéng jì.
We congratulate you on achieving good results.

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.

恭gōngrespectful

“恭” (respectful) and “喜” (joy) together express respectful good wishes.

Characters in this word

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

Meaning part形符xíngfú

心心xīnheart

Sound part声符shēngfú

共

共gòng恭gōng

Same sound today

恭 has 心, meaning heart, and 共, read gòng.

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

壴口喜

壴壴zhùdrum
口口kǒumouth

喜 combines 壴, a drum, with 口, a mouth.

Appears in

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