slash

Origin & mnemonic

This radical originates from a basic stroke in ancient pictographic writing, representing a diagonal or angled line. It is one of the most fundamental strokes used to construct other Chinese characters.

Mnemonic: A simple diagonal stroke like a slash across the page—the foundation of all Chinese characters.

• 乌wū🔊

  crow

  4 strokes

• 乏fá🔊

  short of

  4 strokes

• 乐lè🔊

  happy

  HSK 3

  5 strokes

• 乎hū🔊

  (classical particle similar to 於|于[yu2]) in

  5 strokes

• 乍zhà🔊

  at first

  5 strokes

• 乑zhòng🔊

  to stand side by side

  6 strokes

• 乒pīng🔊

  (onom.) ping

  6 strokes

• 乓pāng🔊

  (onom.) bang

  6 strokes