赶 (gǎn): to overtake, to catch up with, to hurry, to rush, to try to catch (the bus etc)
赶 (gǎn) is a Chinese character meaning “to overtake.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 走 (semantic) and 干 (phonetic). It ranks #908 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 赶 run. Its radical form 走 (walk) appears in many related characters such as 走 (zǒu, to walk), 起 (qǐ, to rise), 超 (chāo, to exceed).
Definitions
- to overtake
- to catch up with
- to hurry
- to rush
- to try to catch (the bus etc)
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 赶 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
HSK Vocabulary with 赶
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | HSK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 赶快adverb | gǎn kuài | quickly | 4 |
| 赶紧adverb | gǎn jǐn | hurriedly | 4 |
| 赶上verb | gǎn shàng | to keep up with | 4 |
| 赶忙adverb | gǎn máng | to hurry | 6 |
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 赶到verb | gǎn dào | to hurry (to some place) |
| 赶走verb | gǎn zǒu | to drive out |
| 赶来verb | gǎn lái | to rush over |
| 追赶verb | zhuī gǎn | to pursue |
| 赶路verb | gǎn lù | to hasten on with one's journey |
| 赶往 | gǎn wǎng | to hurry to (somewhere) |
| 驱赶verb | qū gǎn | to drive (vehicle) |
| 赶跑verb | gǎn pǎo | to drive away |
| 赶尽杀绝phrase | gǎn jìn shā jué | to kill to the last one (idiom) |
| 赶不及verb | gǎn bù jí | not enough time (to do sth) |
| 赶超verb | gǎn chāo | to overtake |
| 赶得及verb | gǎn de jí | to have enough time (to do sth) |
| 迎头赶上phrase | yíng tóu gǎn shàng | to try hard to catch up |
| 赶赴verb | gǎn fù | to hurry |
| 赶时髦verb | gǎn shí máo | to keep up with the latest fashion |
赶 appears in 41 compound words: 80 as the first character, 10 as the last, and 10 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.
Strongest Collocations
Characters that most frequently co-occur with 赶 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (4)
Example Sentences
老师教我们赶字的发音和笔顺。
lǎo shī jiào wǒ men gǎn zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .
The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of the character "赶."
...地男破坏城巴车窗 再抢车致溜后撼九巴 警赶至制服
. . . dì nán pò huài chéng bā chē chuāng zài qiǎng chē zhì liū hòu hàn jiǔ bā jǐng gǎn zhì zhì fú
... The local man broke the window of the Citybus and snatched the car and shook the KMB after slipping away
不只赢新加坡!是方坐拥三环网路 力拚超日赶港
bù zhī yíng xīn jiā pō ! shì fāng zuò yōng sān huán wǎng lù lì 拚 chāo rì gǎn gǎng
Don't just win Singapore! It is sitting on the third ring road and striving to catch up with Hong Kong
...家马德里主场球迷涉纳粹动作 称赛前被保安赶走
. . . jiā mǎ dé lǐ zhǔ chǎng qiú mí shè nà cuì dòng zuò chèn sài qián bèi bǎo ān gǎn zǒu
... Home Madrid home fans involved in Nazi actions and said they were driven away by security before the game
汪小菲过年带子逛饶河夜市 脱口“台湾”赶紧加“中国”
wāng xiǎo 菲 guò nián dài zǐ guàng ráo hé yè shì tuō kǒu tái wān gǎn jǐn jiā zhōng guó
Wang Xiaofei took her children to visit Raohe Night Market during the New Year and blurted out "Taiwan" and quickly added "China"
南通通州:新年“开机”赶订单 新产能冲刺新目标
nán tōng tōng zhōu : xīn nián kāi jī gǎn dìng dān xīn chǎn néng chōng cì xīn mù biāo
Nantong Tongzhou: New Year's "start-up" to catch up with orders New production capacity sprint to new goals
让我们赶走腐败的政客！
Ràng wǒmen gǎnzǒu fǔbài de zhèngkè!
Let's chase out corrupt politicians!
日本在某些领域赶上了美国。
Rìběn zài mǒuxiē lǐngyù gǎnshàng le Měiguó.
Japan has caught up with America in some fields.
你将无法赶上火车。
Nǐ jiāng wúfǎ gǎnshàng huǒchē.
You won't be able to catch the train.
尼克急忙地赶上了公共汽车。
Níkè jímáng de gǎnshàng le gōnggòng qìchē.
Nick hurried to catch the bus.
Character Family
走 Radical Family — Characters sharing the walk radical
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 赶 (gǎn) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 赶 and 下?
How many strokes does 赶 have?
What is the radical of 赶?
What are the components of 赶?
What are common words containing 赶?
What characters sound the same as 赶 (gǎn)?
Is 赶 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 赶 with real-time feedback
Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.