Radical 彳
11 strokes
1. step forward 彳 (81a) + get 
(118a) = obtain 得
2. step forward 彳 (81a) + get (118a) = way 得
3. step forward 彳 (81a) + get (118a) = must 得
This is the one and only character in HSK Level a which has three pronunciations — and three meanings to go with them. When 得 is pronounced dé it means “to obtain”; pronounced de it means “in such a way that”, and pronounced děi it means “have to”.
To keep these straight we have a special story with three parts: the setting is the medal presentation ceremony at the Olympic games (you can decide for yourself which event they have all taken part in or just make one up — the sillier it is, the better!) Now, whenever you see this character and break it down into “step forward” plus “get”, picture the medal ceremony, and then you can run through the story for each of the medals, Gold, Silver and Bronze and recall each of the three meanings which go with them. You have to look at the context to see which of these is appropriate in each case — as you have to with characters which have two pronunciations (and which have Wild West/ spaceship or film set stories). Of course you’ll get used to seeing this character and knowing the pronunciation automatically before long.
得到 (74) dédào get, obtain
取得 (88) qǔdé achieve, obtain
1.
He steps forward to get the gold medal — he had won by obtaining the best overall score. / But there was a dearth of gold so the fairy had conjured up a temporary medal until a proper one could be made.
2.
He steps forward to get the silver medal — the way he had performed had been the best (but he had lost technical marks). / The robot polishes the medal as it’s dusty and he likes all silver things (like himself) to be shiny.
3.
He steps forward to get the bronze medal — he had done all the bits he must do (the compulsory bits) but nothing more. / Teddy puts the bronze medal on a daisy chain to try and cheer up the third place competitor.
