儿兒 ér — child; son (in 儿子); the retroflex suffix -r written after a noun
ér (second tone, rising)
Traditional: 兒
child; son (in 儿子); the retroflex suffix -r written after a noun
2 strokesRadical 儿Frequency #281
Pinyin
- ér (second tone, rising)
child; son (in 儿子); the retroflex suffix -r written after a noun
Character breakdown
Mnemonic
Two strokes, and they are the bottom half of the traditional 兒: a small child seen from below, with 臼 above for the soft spot on an infant’s skull. Two very different jobs today. As a noun it is a son — 儿子, and 女儿 a daughter. As a suffix it is not a syllable at all but a curl of the tongue on the end of the word before it: 一点儿, 玩儿, 这儿 — the sound of Beijing speech.
A memory aid written by HSK Guide editors. It is not an etymology and does not describe the historical origin of the character.