歌
gē · HSK 1
song
🎵🎤 歌 = 哥 (gē, brother) phonetic + 欠 (yawn/open mouth) — open mouth to sing
The 欠 radical depicts a person with an open mouth, signaling sound/breath verbs. 哥 supplies the gē reading. So 歌 literally combines 'open-mouth action' with the gē sound: a song.
歌 — 哥 (phonetic 'gē') + 欠 (open mouth)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The right side 欠 depicts a person with an open mouth, supplying the meaning of singing or vocalizing. The left side 哥 gives the sound 'gē'. Together they form the verb and noun for 'song' or 'to sing'.