swimming
to swimfloating or moving in water
Verb / NounNeutral#sports#water activities#motion
Sample Usage
我喜欢游泳。
wǒ xǐhuān yǒng.yǒng
I like swimming.
你会游泳吗？
nǐ huì yǒng.yǒng ma?
Can you swim?
泳
yǒngyong3
|++ˇ(214)
=yǒng Type: Palatal Glide (Zero Initial)
Sounds like: Zero initial, starting with a semi-vowel 'y' sound like in 'yes'
Airflow Tactile Test: Acts as a bridge into 'i' or 'ü' vowel sounds.
Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue starts flat and rises toward the hard palate for the 'y' glide, then retracts.
Vowel Group: -o vowel group
Sounds like: -ong rhymes with rung
Mouth Shape Guide: Combine initial 'h-' (h) with final '-ong' (oong).
Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.
Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 3 starts mid, dips low to the bottom of your vocal range, and rises back up, resembling an incredulous English 'Really?'
Sandhi: When followed by another 3rd tone, yǒng changes to a 2nd tone (yóng).
👂Listening trap: Do not confuse with yòng (to use, 4th tone), which drops sharply from high to low without rising.
👋Physical Tone Gesture: Trace a checkmark in the air: dip down from chest level and sweep back up to chin height.
Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 8 strokes
Writing Balance Rule: The water radical on the left must be compact and slightly elevated, leaving enough breathing room for the right component永.
Radical 氵 · Water Radical (water, liquids)
Semantic Clue (形旁): 氵 (indicates that the action or concept relates to water)
Phonetic Clue (声旁): 永 (original sound: yǒng)
Water (氵) plus forever/perpetual (永) combines to mean the continuous, everlasting motion of swimming through water.
- 氵 Water semantic indicator
- 永 Phonetic and conceptual clue for continuous flow
Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)
Origin: Combined from the water sign (氵) to signify liquid, and 永 (yǒng, meaning forever or long stream) representing continuous motion in water.
Semantic Evolution: Originally referred to floating or wading in water, it evolved to specifically mean the athletic art of swimming.
- The component 永 itself depicts a winding river current.
🇻🇳Sino-Vietnamese
vịnh
Mandarin tone 3 corresponds roughly to a dipping-rising variation, distinct from Sino-Vietnamese sắc tone.
🇯🇵Kanji (Japanese)
On: エイ / Kun: およ.ぐ
Vivid Mnemonic Story
Picture someone diving into the **water (氵)** and swimming **forever (永)** without getting tired.
永yǒngforeverWithout the water radical, it means forever.
脉màipulse / veinsUses moon/flesh (月) instead of water to represent bodily fluid paths.
Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)
永(yǒng)
永 means forever without water, whereas 泳 specifically involves swimming in water.
勇(yǒng)
勇 replaces the water radical with a box/strength element (男), meaning brave.
8. Mastery
Active Recall Challenge 我每周六都去[___]。
Clue: yóu yǒng
Common Learner PitfallForgetting the water radical on the left and writing only the right side character 永.
Memory Prompts
Recognition: What does 泳 mean and how is it pronounced with tones?
Production: How do you write the character for 'swimming' (yǒng)?
Speed: Searching YouTube for native pronunciation videos...