跟不上
gēn bu shàng · HSK 7
not able to keep up with
🏃 跟 follow + 不 not + 上 up = can't follow up to (their pace)
跟 (gēn) means follow, 不 (bù) negates, 上 (shàng) means up or reach. Together: unable to follow up to someone's level — can't keep pace, whether walking, studying, or matching speed.
跟 — foot radical 足 + 艮 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 足 (foot) gives the meaning, since 跟 originally referred to the heel of the foot. The right side 艮 supplies the sound. From 'heel' it extended to 'follow behind,' and in modern Chinese it also works as 'with' or 'and.'
不 — single pictograph; bird flying upward
Originally a pictograph in oracle bone script, traditionally interpreted as a bird flying up toward the sky and unable to come down, suggesting negation or refusal. Over time it became the standard negation word in Chinese, used before verbs and adjectives to mean 'not'.
上 — horizontal line above a baseline
上 is an indicative character (指事): a short stroke placed above a longer reference line shows the concept of 'above' or 'up'. The earliest oracle-bone forms used two horizontal lines for this; the modern shape added a vertical stroke for clarity. The core meaning of 'upper, above, to ascend' has stayed stable for millennia.