让讓 ràng — to let, to allow; to make or cause someone to do something; to yield, to give way, to give up a seat
ràng (fourth tone, falling)
Traditional: 讓
to let, to allow; to make or cause someone to do something; to yield, to give way, to give up a seat
5 strokesRadical 言Frequency #251
Pinyin
- ràng (fourth tone, falling)
to let, to allow; to make or cause someone to do something; to yield, to give way, to give up a seat
Character breakdown
Ideographic description
⿰讠上The sequence reads left to right and describes how the parts are arranged.
- 讠meaning partno entry yetThe speech radical: yielding, in the original sense, was done by word — one man reproaching or deferring to another.
- 上shape partNot a phonetic. The traditional 讓 has 襄 xiāng on the right, and 上 is simply the shortest stroke-group the reformers could put in its place.
Mnemonic
Speech 讠 with 上, which is here for the strokes and not for the sound. Two jobs in modern Chinese, and both are everyday. As a pivot verb it hands the action to somebody else: 让我看看, let me have a look; 老师让我们写作业. On its own it is to yield: 让座 to give up one’s seat, 请让一让 excuse me, let me through.
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 让
Radical 言 — other characters
- 说說shuō (first tone, high and level)to speak, to say, to talk; to explain; to tell off (colloquial)
- 认認rèn (fourth tone, falling)to recognise, to identify; to admit, to acknowledge; to accept as inevitable
- 语語yǔ (third tone, dipping)language, tongue; speech, words; a saying
- 记記jì (fourth tone, falling)to record, to write down; to remember, to bear in mind; a note, an account; a mark
- 话話huà (fourth tone, falling)speech, words, what is said; a language or dialect; to talk about
- 识識shí (second tone, rising) zhì (fourth tone, falling)to know, to recognise; knowledge; (zhì) to record, an inscription
- 请請qǐng (third tone, dipping)please; to ask, to request; to invite; to treat someone (to a meal)
- 读讀dú (second tone, rising)to read; to read aloud; to study, to attend school
- 谢謝xiè (fourth tone, falling)to thank; thanks; (of flowers) to wither, to fade; Xie, a common surname