更 (gēng) · to change, to replace, to alter

Meanings

1 to change
2 to replace
3 to alter
4 to experience
5 one of five 2-hour night watch periods
6 watch (of a sentry or guard)

Characters

更

gēng

to change

Examples

HSK 3

五更天，鸡就叫了。

Wǔgēng tiān, jī jiù jiào le.

At the fifth watch (just before dawn), the rooster crowed.

HSK 4

请更换密码。

Qǐng gēnghuàn mìmǎ.

Please change your password.

HSK 5

他三更半夜还在工作。

Tā sāngēng-bànyè háizài gōngzuò.

He's still working in the middle of the night.

Tips

usage

As a verb gēng means "to change / replace." Bound in formal compounds: 更换 (replace), 更新 (update), 更改 (alter), 变更 (officially modify), 更替 (alternate). Standalone 更 as a verb is literary; modern speech prefers 换 or 改 instead.

culture

The noun sense names one of the five night-watch periods of imperial China, each about two hours: 一更 19-21, 二更 21-23, 三更 23-01, 四更 01-03, 五更 03-05. Watchmen struck a wooden 梆 clapper to mark each one - the act called 打更. The system is gone but the phrase 三更半夜 ("dead of night") survives in everyday Chinese.

Components

radical

曰 yuē

to say; speech-box radical

Middle 曰 is the speech radical and the entry's indexing radical. Semantically apt: 更 came from 丙 plus 攴, picturing a watchman striking the night watches, so the speech-box stands in for the announcement of each new watch.

semantic

一 yī

one; horizontal cap stroke

The top horizontal anchors the cap of the character. Together with the 曰 just below it, the top stroke recreates the older 丙-shaped top of 更, which once carried the phonetic role; today it reads as a simple horizontal closing stroke.

semantic

乂 yì

crossed-stroke remnant; mowing-cross shape

The two crossing legs at the bottom are the stylised residue of 攴 / 攵, the right-hand-with-stick element used in old 更 to mean "to strike, change, replace." That action sense is the source of this gēng reading; the sister reading gèng ("even more") developed later from the same root.