Writing Balance Rule: Keep the left component (爪 variant) slightly narrower and elevated, allowing the right component (卩) to sweep downward and anchor the right side gracefully.
1. Meaning
seal, stamp, or mark
to print, to engravea trace, imageabbreviation for India (印度)
Noun and VerbNeutral#office supplies#government administration#printing#geography
Sample Usage
请在这里盖印。
Qǐng zài zhèli gài yìn.
Please stamp your seal here.
这本书印了很多万册。
Zhè běn shū yìn le hěn duō wàn cè.
This book has been printed in many tens of thousands of copies.
2. Sound
/[in⁵¹]/Tone: 51
印
yìnyin4
|
++
`(51)
=yìn
Initial Consonant
y
Type: Palatal Glide (Zero Initial)
Sounds like: Zero-initial with an implicit semivowel y glide
Unaspirated
Airflow Tactile Test: Acts as a bridge into 'i' or 'ü' vowel sounds.
Tongue & Mouth Position: No initial consonant obstruction; airflow begins directly with the vowel 'i'.
Final Rhyme
in
Vowel Group: -i vowel group
Sounds like: -in rhymes with the English word 'in'
Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'een'.
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 plunges sharply to the bottom, matching an authoritative command or a definitive 'No!' in English.
Sandhi: When followed by another Tone 4 syllable, the pitch drops sharply from a slightly lower starting point, but remains fundamentally falling.
👂
Listening trap: Do not confuse with 'yīng' (Tone 1) or 'yǐn' (Tone 3). Ensure the pitch drops decisively from high to low without dipping first.
👋
Physical Tone Gesture: A sharp, decisive downward chop with your hand, mirroring a rubber stamp hitting a piece of paper.
3. Writing
Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 5 strokes
Writing Balance Rule: Keep the left component (爪 variant) slightly narrower and elevated, allowing the right component (卩) to sweep downward and anchor the right side gracefully.
4. Components
Radical卩 · Seal / Kneeling Person Radical (seal, tally, or kneeling figure)
Semantic Clue (形旁):卩 (indicates a tally or official authority represented by a stamp)
An official government claw or hand grasping a tally/seal (卩), representing authority stamped onto a document.
爫 claw or hand reaching down from above
卩 kneeling figure or official tallies
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
2· Phonetic Root: 印 (yìn)
5. History
Liushu category: Compound ideogram (会意)
Origin: In Oracle Bone scripts, the character depicts a hand (爪) pressing down upon a kneeling person (卩), symbolizing subjugation, official authority, or the pressing of an authoritative seal.
Semantic Evolution: Originally representing a hand pressing down or governing a person, it evolved into the physical object used for official certification—the seal or stamp—and subsequently expanded to mean printing and marking.
In ancient China, the 'xǐ' (玺) or 'yìn' (印) was the supreme symbol of imperial power and bureaucratic authority.
6. Sinosphere
🇻🇳
Sino-Vietnamese
ấn
The entering/stopped tone of 'ấn' in Vietnamese corresponds well to the decisive closing nature of Mandarin Tone 4.
🇯🇵
Kanji (Japanese)
On: イン (in) / Kun: しるし (shirushi)
🇰🇷
Hanja (Korean)
인
Sound Shift Bridge: The Sino-Xenic readings ('in', '인', '印') preserve the ancient Chinese nasal ending almost identically.
7. Memory
Vivid Mnemonic Story
Picture an official in ancient times pressing a giant hand (爪) down onto a kneeling citizen (卩) to leave an official ink seal (印) of approval.
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
抑
yìto restrain, suppressAdd the hand radical (扌) to mean using your hands to press down or restrain.
柳
liǔwillow treeAdd the wood radical (木) to refer to the weeping willow tree.
Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)
卵(luǎn)
卵 means 'egg' and features dot-and-dash internal structures rather than the claw-and-seal structure of 印.
8. Mastery
Active Recall Challenge
请把这份文件[___]出来。
Clue: yìn
Common Learner Pitfall
Confusing Tone 4 (yìn) with Tone 3 (yǐn), which changes the meaning entirely or results in an unnatural pronunciation.
Memory Prompts
Recognition: When you see the character 印, what core concepts of marking, sealing, or printing come to mind?
Production: How do you write the character for 'seal/print' (yìn) and what tone does it take?
Real-World Video Context
Watch authentic native speakers pronounce and explain this word in real-world YouTube videos.
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印yìnseal, stamp, to print
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