Chinese word

共

Pronunciation

Pinyingòng

Meaning

  • adverbin total

Example

我们班共有三十个学生。wǒ men bān gòng yǒu sān shí gè xué shēng

Our class has thirty students in total.

Illustration for 共 (in total)

More examples

项目共花了三个月完成。xiàng mù gòng huā le sān gè yuè wán chéng

The project took three months to complete in total.

Core concept

Multiple elements are treated as one joint whole, either in action or in a final count.

Common phrases

  • 共有gòng yǒu

    have in total

  • 共花了gòng huā le

    spend in total

Similar words

一共yí gòng: Shows the full total in everyday speech.
总共zǒng gòng: States the total sum of several numbers or amounts.
一起yì qǐ: Shows that people or things do an action together.

Definition in Chinese

表示共同或一起，也可表示全部加在一起的合计，用于说明共同的状态或合并的数量。biǎo shì gòng tóng huò yì qǐ yě kě biǎo shì quán bù jiā zài yì qǐ de hé jì yòng yú shuō míng gòng tóng de zhuàng tài huò hé bìng de shù liàng

Word origin

The character 共 (gòng, "together; in total") is associated with hands bringing something together, a concrete image that extends naturally from joint action to a combined number.

Usage tips

  • For a total, Chinese can put this adverb directly before the number, while English often signals the same idea after the number; this difference helps explain its early position.

Other meanings

  • togetheradverb

Opposites

Related words

Word lists with this word