语語 yǔ — language, tongue; speech, words; a saying
yǔ (third tone, dipping)
Traditional: 語
language, tongue; speech, words; a saying
9 strokesRadical 言Frequency #231
Pinyin
- yǔ (third tone, dipping)
language, tongue; speech, words; a saying
Character breakdown
Ideographic description
⿰讠吾The sequence reads left to right and describes how the parts are arranged.
- 讠meaning partno entry yetThe speech radical: sound rising out of a mouth.
- 吾sound partno entry yet吾 wú for the sound; on its own it is the classical pronoun "I".
Mnemonic
Speech 讠 with 吾 wú for the sound. It is the bookish half of the pair: 语 is the language as a system — 汉语, 英语, 语法, 语言 — while 话 is language as it comes out of a mouth, 说话, 电话. Where the two overlap, 语 sounds written and 话 sounds spoken.
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 语
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
- 让讓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
- 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