赶快
gǎnkuài · HSK 3
quickly
🏃💨 赶 = chase/hurry + 快 = fast → hurry up, quickly
赶 means to chase or rush, 快 means fast or quick. Together 赶快 stacks two urgency words for emphasis: literally hurry-fast, used like the English adverb quickly or the imperative hurry up.
赶 — walk radical 走 + 旱 (gan, phonetic)
赶 combines 走 'to walk/run' as the meaning component with 旱 as the phonetic clue for the sound gǎn. The walking radical points to its core meanings: to hurry, to chase, or to drive (animals) along. The simplified form replaced the older 趕, which used 倝 as phonetic.
快 — heart radical 忄 + 夬 (phonetic)
快 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The heart radical 忄 carries the meaning, since the original sense referred to a feeling of pleasure or delight. The right side 夬 supplies the sound. The meaning later extended from 'pleased' to 'quick, fast', the dominant modern sense.