toil, labor, physical or mental work
meritorious deed or contributionfatigue or tiredness resulting from workto put someone to troubleto express appreciation for someone's hard work
verb / nounNeutralBound morpheme#work#effort#society
勞
láolao2
|++´(35)
=láo Type: Alveolar Lateral
Sounds like: l sound as in 'lamp'
Airflow Tactile Test: Air flows freely around both sides of tongue.
Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge right behind the upper front teeth.
Vowel Group: -a vowel group
Sounds like: ao rhymes with ow in 'cow'
Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ow'.
Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.
Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 2 starts mid and rises sharply to the top, exactly like asking 'What?' in English disbelief.
Sandhi: When followed by another Tone 2, it shifts to a high rising contour.
👂Listening trap: Confusing Tone 2 (láo) with Tone 4 (lào) or Tone 3 (lǎo).
👋Physical Tone Gesture: A rising hand gesture moving upward from chest level to eye level, mirroring an inquiring question like 'Huh?'
Topology: Top-bottom · Strokes: 7 strokes
Writing Balance Rule: Ensure the top fire components are balanced and compact over the bottom strength component to avoid a top-heavy look.
Simplification Logic: The traditional form 勞 was simplified by replacing the top components and simplifying the center to form 劳.
Radical 力 · Strength Radical (power, force, physical strength)
Semantic Clue (形旁): 力 (indicates physical effort and labor)
A combination of elements symbolizing fire and hard physical effort (力), representing sweating and toiling away near a fire or under intense heat.
- 艹 grass or crown shape at top
- 冖 cover
- 力 strength/labor
Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)
Origin: Originally depicted people doing strenuous work under a roof or near a fire, combining symbols of exertion and strength.
Semantic Evolution: Shifted from specific physical exertion to general concepts of labor, fatigue, and meritorious service.
- Often used historically in contexts of rewarding soldiers or officials for their meritorious labor (功劳).
🇻🇳Sino-Vietnamese
lao
Similar level or rising modulation in Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary.
🇯🇵Kanji (Japanese)
On: ロウ / Kun: つかれ
Sound Shift Bridge: Shared East Asian root vocabulary for labor and fatigue.
Vivid Mnemonic Story
Imagine working so hard with all your STRENGTH (力) under the sun that you are covered in sweat and feel complete FATIGUE (劳).
捞lāoto dredge / to fish outAdd water radical (氵) for fishing/dredging out of water.
涝làowaterlogging / floodAdd water radical (氵) and change tone for flood.
崂láoLaoshan MountainAdd mountain radical (山) for the famous mountain.
Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)
劳(láo)
Look out for similar looking characters with different radicals like 崂 or 捞.
8. Mastery
Active Recall Challenge 請不要太[___]了，多休息一會兒。
Clue: láo
Common Learner PitfallConfusing the bound morpheme usage in compound words with stand-alone verbs.
Memory Prompts
Recognition: What does '劳' mean when seen in compound words like 疲劳 or 劳驾?
Production: How do you write the character for toil/labor (láo) with 7 strokes?
Speed: Searching YouTube for native pronunciation videos...