垃 (lā) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

垃

lā[la1]Tone 1

garbage

HSK 4

Guru Deep Dive

English · garbage

Cached lesson

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:8

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (the dirt radical) should be compact and narrower, leaving ample room for the right side component while keeping the overall box shape balanced.

1. Meaning

garbage, trash, refuse

used almost exclusively in the compound word 垃圾 (lājī) meaning garbage or waste

Bound Form / MorphemeNeutralBound morpheme#environment#daily life#sanitation

Sample Usage

请把垃圾扔进桶里。
Qǐng bǎ lājī rēng jìn tǒng lǐ.
Please throw the garbage into the bin.
这里有很多垃圾。
Zhè lǐ yǒu hěn duō lājī.
There is a lot of trash here.

2. Sound

/[lä⁵⁵]/Tone: 55

垃

lāla1

¯(55)

=lā

Initial Consonant

Type: Alveolar Lateral

Sounds like: l sound as in 'love'

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Air flows freely around both sides of tongue.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Touch the tip of your tongue gently to the ridge behind your upper front teeth while voicing air around the sides.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -a vowel group

Sounds like: a sound as in 'father'

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

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

Tone

T1 (55)

5 → 5 (55)

1st Tone (High-Flat)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 1 stays flat and high at the top of your vocal range, like a musical note sustained on a single pitch.

👂

Listening trap: Beginners often confuse the first tone 'lā' with the third tone 'lǎ' or the neutral tone 'la' due to casual speech reduction in the compound word 垃圾.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Hold your hand flat and high in the air, moving it in a straight horizontal line to represent the high level pitch.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 8 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (the dirt radical) should be compact and narrower, leaving ample room for the right side component while keeping the overall box shape balanced.

4. Components

Radical 土 · Earth Radical (earth, ground, soil)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 土 (Indicates dirt, ground, or earthy refuse)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 立 (original sound: lì)

Dirt on the ground (土) where people stand or erect things (立) gets swept up as waste and refuse.

土 earth or ground
立 stand or erect (phonetic and shape clue)

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

10· Phonetic Root: 立 (lì)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: The character combines the earth radical (土) to denote earthy waste or debris and the phonetic component (立), forming a modern compound created to represent the sound and concept of garbage.

Semantic Evolution: Originally coined to capture colloquial expressions for waste, it is now standard in modern Chinese almost exclusively paired with 圾 (jī) to form 垃圾 (lājī).

The character is rarely used by itself outside of the compound word 垃圾.
In Taiwan, it is traditionally pronounced with a fourth tone reading (lè), though mainland standard pronunciation is lā.

6. Sinosphere

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

You STAND (立) on the DIRT (土) and sweep up all the GARBAGE that people leave behind.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

拉

lāto pullUses the hand radical (扌) because you pull things with your hands.

粒

lìgrain, dropUses the rice radical (米) for tiny grain particles.

位

wèiposition, personUses the person radical (亻) for people positions.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

拉(lā)

拉 uses the hand radical (扌) for pulling actions, whereas 垃 uses the earth radical (土) for garbage on the ground.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

请把[___]扔进垃圾桶。

Clue: lā jī

Common Learner Pitfall

Attempting to use 垃 as a standalone free word in sentences instead of always coupling it with 圾 to form 垃圾.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: What character is this (垃) and what common compound word does it form?

Production: How do you write the character for the first syllable of 'lājī' (garbage)?

垃lāgarbage

Speed:

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