gǎn

to overtake; to catch up with

to hurry; to rush; to try to catch (the bus etc); to drive (cattle etc) forward; to drive (sb) away; to avail oneself of (an opportunity); until; by (a certain time)

walk (走) + [sound] (干) = hurry and catch up

走 brings the sense of walking and movement, anchoring all the meanings of rushing, chasing, and driving forward. 干 mainly contributes the gǎn sound; the legs do the real work here.

+
DryPhonetic
To walkSemantic

你快点,我们要上那班车。

nǐ kuài diǎn, wǒ men yào gǎn shàng nà bān chē.

Hurry up, we need to catch that bus.

他每天早起是为了早班地铁。

tā měi tiān zǎo qǐ shì wèi le gǎn zǎo bān dì tiě.

He gets up early every day in order to catch the early metro.

Words with 赶

驱赶

qū gǎn

to drive (vehicle)

驱魔赶鬼

qū mó gǎn guǐ

to exorcise

你追我赶

nǐ zhuī wǒ gǎn

friendly one-upmanship

吃屎都赶不上热乎的

chī shǐ dōu gǎn bu shàng rè hu de

lit. if you were eating warm shit, it'd be stone cold by the time you finished it (saying)

流星赶月

liú xīng gǎn yuè

lit. a meteor catching up with the moon

赶车

gǎn chē

to drive a cart

赶集

gǎn jí

to go to a local market or country fair (on market day)

赶到

gǎn dào

to hurry (to some place)

赶往

gǎn wǎng

to hurry to (somewhere)

赶上

gǎn shàng

to keep up with

赶不上

gǎn bù shàng

can't keep up with

赶不及

gǎn bù jí

not enough time (to do sth)

More characters with 走