起 qǐ — to rise, to get up, to stand up; to begin; to raise; a measure word for cases or incidents
qǐ (third tone, dipping)
to rise, to get up, to stand up; to begin; to raise; a measure word for cases or incidents
10 strokesRadical 走Frequency #64
Pinyin
- qǐ (third tone, dipping)
to rise, to get up, to stand up; to begin; to raise; a measure word for cases or incidents
Character breakdown
Ideographic description
⿺走己The sequence reads left to right and describes how the parts are arranged.
- 走meaning partTo walk, to set off: a figure in motion above a footprint.
- 己sound partno entry yet己 jǐ for the sound.
Mnemonic
Walking 走 with 己 for the sound: getting up off the ground and moving. Its real work in modern Chinese is as a complement stuck on the end of other verbs. 起来 means upward — 站起来 stand up, 想起来 to call to mind. And 买不起 means not being able to afford something: the price is more than you can lift.
A memory aid written by HSK Guide editors. It is not an etymology and does not describe the historical origin of the character.
Words containing 起
- 起来起來qǐlái (third tone, dipping)to get up, to stand up, to rise
- 一起yìqǐ (fourth tone, falling)together
- 引起yǐnqǐ (third tone, dipping)to give rise to, to cause, to trigger
- 对不起對不起duìbuqǐ (fourth tone, falling)sorry; excuse me
- 起床qǐchuáng (third tone, dipping)to get up, to get out of bed
- 起飞起飛qǐfēi (third tone, dipping)to take off (of an aircraft)