水 4 strokes

水 shuǐ — water

4 strokes · radical 水 · HSK 1

A way to remember it

A stream with current lines either side. Squashed to three strokes on the left of a character — 氵 — it marks almost everything wet: 河 river, 海 sea, 泪 tear.

A picture that makes the shape stick — not a claim about the character’s history.

A stream with current lines either side.

Words it turns up in

水果喝水

Lists it belongs to

一二三人 Your first 20 characters 20 characters 茶水叶杯 Tea characters 15 characters 日月山水 Characters that are still pictures 24 characters 一二七八 HSK 1 core characters 86 characters

Characters near this one

Quick check — what does 水 mean?

Reading that mentions 水

7 Chinese characters that are still drawings — the fastest win for day-one learners Start here The 12 radicals that unlock 500 characters — and the order to learn them in Start here