勾

• Pinyin: gōu
• Hanzi breakdown: 勾 = 厶 (private; curved stroke) + 勹 (to wrap; curved form) — a curved catching or hooking shape

Meaning

To hook; to tick off; to draw a rough outline; to evoke or trigger. A versatile verb describing a curved catching motion, marking with a checkmark, sketching lines, or causing a feeling to arise.

Highly versatile: 勾 can mean to hook (勾住), to check off on a list (勾选), to sketch in outline (勾画/勾勒), to tempt or entice (勾引), or to collude (勾结). In culinary contexts, 勾芡 means to thicken a sauce with starch. The breadth of meaning makes context essential.

Examples

1. 她只是随口说了一句话，却勾起了他心中久已沉寂的记忆。 She said one casual sentence, and it brought back memories that had been buried deep in his heart for years.
2. 请在符合条件的选项旁边打勾，不符合的留空即可。 Please check the options that meet the requirements, and leave the ones that don’t blank.
3. 侦探发现两名嫌疑人早已暗中勾连，共同策划了这起诈骗案。 The detective discovered that the two suspects had long been secretly working together to plan the fraud.

Usage Guide

Context: daily life, emotion, forms, culinary, collocations

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 这道菜需要最后勾个薄芡，让汤汁更加浓稠光亮。(This dish needs a light starch thickening at the end to make the sauce richer and glossier.)
• 老照片勾起了她对童年时光的无限回忆。(The old photographs evoked boundless memories of her childhood.)

Don't Say

• 将'勾'与'钩'混用而不注意语境 — 勾 (gōu) is primarily a verb for hooking/evoking/sketching; 钩 (gōu) is both a verb and a noun referring to a physical hook; in practice 钩住 (hook onto something physical) and 勾起 (evoke a feeling) are not interchangeable

Origin & History

Pictophonetic: 勾 contains the element for a curved/hook shape. The character depicts a bent or hooked form.

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal