兑 (duì) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

兑

duì[dui4]Tone 4

to exchange, to convert, cash

HSK 7

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兌

Guru Deep Dive

English · to exchange, to convert, cash

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Topology:Top-bottom

Strokes:7

Writing Balance Rule: Keep the top section (八/口 variant) compact and balanced directly above the lower human legs/element (儿), ensuring the vertical axis remains straight.

1. Meaning

to exchange, to convert or cash

to add liquid and mixsurname Duisymbolizing swamp in the Eight Trigrams

VerbNeutral#finance#actions#philosophy

Sample Usage

我想去银行兑换外币。
wǒ xiǎng qù yínháng duìhuàn wàibì.
I want to go to the bank to exchange foreign currency.
请帮我把这张支票兑现。
qǐng bāng wǒ bǎ zhè zhāng zhīpiào duìxiàn.
Please help me cash this check.

2. Sound

/[tuei̯⁵¹]/Tone: 51

兑

duìdui4

`(51)

=duì

Build the syllable

Step-by-step blending

dui

Tone mark placement: Tone mark sits on "i" per the side-by-side rule (in -iu/-ui the mark takes the second vowel).

Initial Consonant

Type: Unaspirated Alveolar

Sounds like: d sound in English 'do'

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: No puff of air. Tissue remains still (sounds like English 't' in 'stop').

Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge behind the upper front teeth.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -i vowel group

Sounds like: -uay sound in 'sway'

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

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

Abbreviated Rhyme Rule: ui is short for uei

Tone

T4 (51)

5 → 1 (51)

4th Tone (High-Falling)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 starts high and plunges sharply to the bottom, identical to a sharp English command like 'No!' or 'Stop!'

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the diphthong '-ui' (which is actually an abbreviation of '-uei') with an English 'ew' or 'oo' sound, missing the intermediate 'e' vowel glide.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A sharp, definitive chop downward with your hand, mirroring the high-to-low pitch drop of Tone 4.

3. Writing

Topology: Top-bottom · Strokes: 7 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: Keep the top section (八/口 variant) compact and balanced directly above the lower human legs/element (儿), ensuring the vertical axis remains straight.

4. Components

Radical 儿 · Legs Radical (legs, human)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 口 (mouth or speech expressing joy)

At the top, a joyful expression or open mouth (口 variant), sitting atop human legs (儿), representing a person expressing pleasure or interacting in trade.

丷 joyful opening at the top
口 mouth
儿 legs

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

5· Phonetic Root: 兑 (duì)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally depicted a person joyful and speaking with an open mouth, later borrowed for abstract concepts of exchange, matching, and the trigram for marsh/joy.

Semantic Evolution: From original feelings of joy and satisfaction to commercial exchange (exchanging goods with satisfaction) and cashing checks.

It represents one of the eight fundamental trigrams (八卦) symbolizing open lakes, joy, and the swamp.

6. Sinosphere

🇻🇳

Sino-Vietnamese

đoái

High falling/glottal tone in Vietnamese corresponding to Chinese Tone 4.

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: タイ / Kun: よろこ.ぶ

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

태

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

A joyful person with an open mouth (口) stands on their legs (儿) at the currency exchange counter, ready to TRADE and CASH their money with a sharp nod.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

说

shuìto persuade+ 讠 (speech)

脱

tuōto shed, to take off, to escape+ ⺼ (meat)

悦

yuèpleased+ 忄 (heart)

锐

ruìacute+ 钅 (metal)

Explore this family →

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

树(shù)

Has a tree radical on the left, completely different meaning (tree).

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

我去银行把美元[___]成人民币。

Clue: duì

Common Learner Pitfall

Forgetting that 'ui' in Pinyin contains an unwritten middle 'e' vowel sound, leading to mispronunciation like 'doo-ee' instead of 'dway'.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: What does the character 兑 mean when you see it in 兑换 (duìhuàn)?

Production: How do you write the character for 'to exchange/cash' (duì) with 7 strokes?

兑duìto exchange, to convert, cash

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