Writing Balance Rule: Keep the left radical (亻) narrow and upright, and give the right component (列) enough horizontal breathing room so the character looks balanced rather than squished.
Airflow Tactile Test: Air flows freely around both sides of tongue.
Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip touches the roof of the mouth right behind the upper front teeth.
Final Rhyme
i
Vowel Group: -i vowel group
Sounds like: ee sound as in 'see'
Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ee'.
Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.
Tone
T4 (51)
5 → 1 (51)
4th Tone (High-Falling)
Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 starts high and drops immediately to the bottom, identical to a sharp command like 'Stop!' or 'Go!'.
👂
Listening trap: Confusing the falling Tone 4 with Tone 3 (lǐ), making it sound hesitant instead of definitive.
👋
Physical Tone Gesture: A sharp, authoritative karate chop downward from high to low.
3. Writing
Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 8 strokes
Writing Balance Rule: Keep the left radical (亻) narrow and upright, and give the right component (列) enough horizontal breathing room so the character looks balanced rather than squished.
4. Components
Radical亻 · Person Radical (human, person)
Semantic Clue (形旁):亻 (indicates human involvement or societal rules/examples concerning people)
Phonetic Clue (声旁):列 (original sound: liè)
A person (亻) standing in a neat row or arrangement (列) serves as a model or example for others.
亻 person
列 to arrange, line up, series
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
8· Phonetic Root: 列 (liè)
5. History
Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)
Origin: Combined from the person radical (亻) representing human actions and 列 (liè) providing the phonetic hint and the sense of sorting or lining things up systematically.
Semantic Evolution: Originally referring to a standard, rank, or established rule, it broadened to mean a specific instance or example fitting that rule.
Used extensively in classical Chinese administrative texts to denote legal precedents and operational statutes.
6. Sinosphere
🇻🇳
Sino-Vietnamese
lệ
Corresponds to the Vietnamese nặng tone, matching the abrupt, plunging quality of Mandarin Tone 4.
🇯🇵
Kanji (Japanese)
On: レイ / Kun: たと.える
🇰🇷
Hanja (Korean)
례
Sound Shift Bridge: The initial 'l' and final vowel 'i' remain stable across multiple borrowings and cognate structures in East Asian historical vocabulary.
7. Memory
Vivid Mnemonic Story
A famous person (亻) lines up in a neat row (列) to show everyone else the exact right way to do it—setting a clear example (例).
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
列
lièline, rowWithout the person radical, it means a row or sequence.
烈
lièfiery, intenseReplaces the left side with fire (灬), meaning blazing or fierce.
Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)
列(liè)
Missing the person radical (亻) on the left; refers to a row or series instead of an example.
8. Mastery
Active Recall Challenge
老师给我们举了一个很好的[___]。
Clue: lì
Common Learner Pitfall
Confusing '例子' (example) with '梨子' (pear) due to similar sounding pinyin and tones if mispronounced.
Memory Prompts
Recognition: What does the character 例 mean when you see it in compounds like 例如 or 例子?
Production: How do you write the character for 'example' (lì) using the person radical and the phonetic component for rows?
Real-World Video Context
Watch authentic native speakers pronounce and explain this word in real-world YouTube videos.
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例lìexample
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