忘 wàng — to forget; to overlook, to leave behind
wàng (fourth tone, falling)
to forget; to overlook, to leave behind
7 strokesRadical 心Frequency #523
Pinyin
- wàng (fourth tone, falling)
to forget; to overlook, to leave behind
Character breakdown
Ideographic description
⿱亡心The sequence reads left to right and describes how the parts are arranged.
- 亡sound partno entry yet亡 wáng for the sound. Its own meaning — to be lost, to perish — reads straight through into the compound.
- 心meaning partThe heart, which in Chinese holds the memory as well as the feelings.
Mnemonic
Lost 亡 over the heart 心: what the heart has mislaid. The phonetic here happens to carry its own meaning straight into the compound, which is rarer than beginners expect. Two everyday shapes: 忘记 to forget, and 别忘了 don’t forget — the sentence any teacher ends the lesson with.
A memory aid written by HSK Guide editors. It is not an etymology and does not describe the historical origin of the character.
Words containing 忘
Radical 心 — other characters
- 心xīn (first tone, high and level)heart; mind, feelings, intention; the centre of something (中心)
- 想xiǎng (third tone, dipping)to think, to reflect; to want to, to would like to; to miss someone
- 爱愛ài (fourth tone, falling)to love; to like, to be fond of; love, affection
- 怕pà (fourth tone, falling)to fear, to be afraid of; to be afraid that; probably, I dare say