偶 (ǒu) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

偶

ǒu[ou3]Tone 3

accidental, image, pair, mate

HSK 5

Guru Deep Dive

English · accidental, image, pair, mate

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:11

Writing Balance Rule: The left radical (亻) should be narrow and lean slightly forward, while the right component (禺) claims more horizontal space and balances the vertical weight.

1. Meaning

accidental or by chance

idol or imagecouple or pairspouse or mate

adjective / nounNeutral#chance#relationships#representation

Sample Usage

我偶爾去那裡。
wǒ ǒu'ěr qù nàlǐ.
I go there occasionally.
他是我的偶像。
tā shì wǒ de ǒuxiàng.
He is my idol.

2. Sound

/[oʊ̯²¹⁴]/Tone: 214

偶

ǒuou3

ˇ(214)

=ǒu

Initial Consonant

∅

Type: Zero Initial (Pure Vowel)

Sounds like: y / w

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Starts directly on the vowel sound without consonant obstruction.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Open vocal tract directly into the target vowel shape.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -o vowel group

Sounds like: ou rhymes with oh

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'oh'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T3 (214)

2 → 1 → 4 (214)

3rd Tone (Low-Dipping)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 3 dips low and rises, exactly like saying 'What?' in disbelief.

Sandhi: When followed by another Tone 3 syllable, ǒu shifts to a Tone 2 rising pitch (35).

👂

Listening trap: Do not confuse it with ōu (Tone 1) or òu (Tone 4). The low dipping pitch must be distinct.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Trace a checkmark in the air: dip down sharply from the chest level and rise back up to the chin.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 11 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The left radical (亻) should be narrow and lean slightly forward, while the right component (禺) claims more horizontal space and balances the vertical weight.

4. Components

Radical 亻 · Person Radical (human, person)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 亻 (indicates human involvement or human relations)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 禺 (original sound: yú / ǒu)

A person (亻) standing next to a carved monkey/figure (禺) creates the idea of a wooden puppet, mate, or accidental resemblance.

亻 person
禺 phonetic clue and original image of a monkey/idol

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

9· Phonetic Root: 禺 (ǒu)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally referred to wooden burial figurines or idols shaped like humans, which naturally extended to mean pairs and later accidental chance.

Semantic Evolution: From carved wooden human images to paired figurines, then to couples/spouses, and finally generalized to accidental occurrences.

Ancient burial figurines were often buried in pairs (couples) to accompany the deceased.

6. Sinosphere

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: グウ / Kun: たまに / ともなう

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

우

Sound Shift Bridge: The Mandarin 'ou' corresponds to 'guu' in Japanese On'yomi and '우' in Korean.

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

A PERSON (亻) unexpectedly bumps into their IDOL (禺) by ACCIDENT in the street, turning a solitary walk into a PAIR.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

遇

yùto meetAdds the walking/road radical (辶) to mean running into someone.

愚

yúfoolishReplaces the person radical with the heart radical (心) or head element, meaning foolish mind.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

区(qū)

区 means district or area and lacks the person radical entirely.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

他只是[___]路過這裡，不是特意來的。

Clue: ǒu

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing ǒu with ǒuxiàng (idol) when writing standalone sentences, or forgetting that it can mean 'accidental' as well as 'pair'.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see ǒu, what two completely different concepts should immediately come to mind?

Production: How do you write the character for 'accidental / pair' starting with the person radical?

偶ǒuaccidental, image, pair, mate

Speed:

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