Chinese word dictionary

拉钩

lā gōu · to make a pinky promise

Practice word

Word information

Simplified拉钩

Traditional拉鉤

Pinyinlā gōu

Part of speechDictionary

HSK 3.0Not listed

HSK 2.0Not listed

Character breakdown

Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.

拉lā

to pull, to drag; to seize, to hold; to lengthen; to play (a violin)

钩gōu

hook, barb, sickle; to hook, to link

How to learn 拉钩

Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.

When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.

Related vocabulary

Words with the same characters

Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.

拉lā

to pull; to play (a bowed instrument); to drag; to draw; to chat; (coll.) to empty one's bowels

钩gōu

to hook; to sew; to crochet; hook; check mark or tick; window catch; variant of 鉤|钩[gou1]

挂钩guàgōu

to couple; to link; to hook together; (fig.) (preceded by 與|与[yu3] + {entity}) to establish contact (with {entity}); (Tw) to collude (with {entity}); (fig.) to link (marketing efforts with production etc); to peg (welfare payments to inflation etc); to tie (remuneration to performance etc); hook (on which to hang sth); latch hook; coupling

拉动lādòng

to pull; (fig.) to stimulate (economic activity); to motivate (people to do sth)

拉链lāliàn

zipper

拉拢lālǒng

to rope in; fig. to involve sb; to entice