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水

Tap the pinyin to hear it

water; (after a name) ... River; to swim (used mostly in 會水|会水[hui4 shui3] and 水性[shui3 xing4]); (coll.) lacking in substance; shoddy; (bound form) additional cost; extra income; classifier for washings of a garment

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HSK 3.0
Level 1
Old HSK
Level 1
Strokes
4
Radical
水 itself
Structure
Overlaid 叠加
Traditional
水
Common rank
#10
Unicode
U+6C34

Sound it out + =

Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

How 水 is formed

Pictograph (象形字)

A river running between two banks; compare 川

Components 亅 ? unknown part

How to remember it

water · Heisig RSH #137

walking stick + a drop of — as a component also called: water, snowflake

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

Words with 水

The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.

WordPinyinMeaning
水果 shuǐ guǒ fruit
大水 dà shuǐ flood
山水 Shān shuǐ Sansui, Japanese company
山水 shān shuǐ water from a mountain; mountains and rivers; scenery; landscape
中水 zhōng shuǐ reclaimed water; recycled water
一水儿 yī shuǐ r (coll.) of the same type; identical
水生 shuǐ shēng aquatic (plant, animal)
生水 shēng shuǐ unboiled water
天水市 Tiān shuǐ Shì Tianshui, prefecture-level city in Gansu Province 甘肅省|甘肃省[Gan1 su4 Sheng3]
无水 wú shuǐ anhydrous (chemistry); waterless; dehydrated
白水县 Bái shuǐ Xiàn Baishui, a county in Weinan City 渭南市[Wei4 nan2 Shi4], Shaanxi
天水 Tiān shuǐ see 天水市[Tian1 shui3 Shi4]
水马 shuǐ mǎ water-filled barrier
金水区 Jīn shuǐ Qū Jinshui, a district of Zhengzhou City 鄭州市|郑州市[Zheng4 zhou1 Shi4], Henan
水性 shuǐ xìng swimming ability; characteristics of a body of water (depth, currents etc); aqueous; water…
海水 hǎi shuǐ seawater
白水 Bái shuǐ see 白水縣|白水县[Bai2 shui3 Xian4]
白水 bái shuǐ plain water
有水 yǒu shuǐ supplied with water (of a house)
水化 shuǐ huà to hydrate

Examples & usage

Real sentences with 水 — read them aloud, then paste your own into the converter.

  1. 请给我一杯水。

    Qǐng gěi wǒ yì bēi shuǐ.

    Please give me a glass of water.

  2. 河里的水很清。

    Hé li de shuǐ hěn qīng.

    The water in the river is very clear.

Usage tip: 水 也出现在 水果 (fruit) 里，字面是「水 + 果」，不要按字面理解成「水做的果」。