Language/Mandarin-chinese/Vocabulary/流(流)-liú-flow;-spread

流(流) liú flow; spread in Mandarin Chinese

Definition

Radical is 水 shuĭ “water”, which is written 氵 and is referred to colloquially as 三点水 (三點水) sāndiăn shuĭ “three drops of water” when it occurs at the left-hand side of a character. Phonetic is the rest of the character.

Examples

◉流 (流) liú flow [V]

◉河流 (河流) héliú rivers [V]

◉交流 (交流) jiāoliú exchange, interact [V]; exchange, interaction [N]

◉文化交流 (文化交流) wénhuà jiāoliú cultural exchange [PH]

Note

Note that the difference between the official simplified form and the official traditional form of this character does not show up in all fonts; in some fonts, they both look the same.

Sources

Book: Intermediate Written Chinese by Cornelius C. Kubler

Other Lessons

• 绩(績) jī achievement, accomplishment; merit
• 草 căo grass
• Animal Sounds
• 产(產) chăn produce
• 更 gèng even more, more
• 料 liào material
• 能 néng
• 吗 ma
• 民 mín people
• 相 xiāng mutually
• 望(望) wàng hope; watch
• 任 rèn duty; bear (a burden), Rén (as a surname)
• 故 gù cause, reason; therefore
• 用 yòng use; need to
• 注 zhù concentrate on