浮 (fú) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

浮

fú[fu2]Tone 2

to float

HSK 6

Guru Deep Dive

English · to float

Cached lesson

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:10

Writing Balance Rule: The left radical (氵) takes up about one-third of the horizontal space, leaving the right component (孚) balanced and slightly wider, with careful alignment of horizontal strokes.

1. Meaning

to float on the surface of water

superficialunstableexcessivetransient

Verb / AdjectiveNeutral#movement#water#abstract states

Sample Usage

木头在水面上浮着。
mùtou zài shuǐmiàn shàng fú zhe.
The wood is floating on the water surface.
为人不能太浮躁。
wéirén bù néng tài fúzào.
One must not be too impetuous and impatient in character.

2. Sound

/[fu³⁵]/Tone: 35

浮

fúfu2

´(35)

=fú

Initial Consonant

Type: Labiodental Fricative

Sounds like: f sound in English 'fish'

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Continuous smooth friction.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Upper teeth touch the lower lip gently, air passes continuously without plosion.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -u vowel group

Sounds like: oo sound in English 'boot'

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

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

Tone

T2 (35)

3 → 5 (35)

2nd Tone (Mid-Rising)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 2 rises from a middle pitch to a high pitch, identical to the upward inflection when asking 'Huh?' or 'Really?' in English conversation.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the rising tone (Tone 2) with Tone 4 (falling), making it sound like 'fù' instead of 'fú'.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A rising hand gesture starting from mid-chest and moving sharply upward to the upper right, matching the inquiring intonation of 'What?' in English.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 10 strokes

4. Components

Radical 氵 · Water Radical (water, liquids, rivers)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 氵 (indicates water and buoyancy context)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 孚 (original sound: fú)

Water (氵) plus hatching/clutching (孚) combines to depict light objects floating securely on top of water like a bird hatching eggs.

氵 Water semantic indicator
孚 Phonetic and conceptual clue for holding or staying on top

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

11· Phonetic Root: 孚 (fú)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally combined water (水) with a hand holding a claw or child (孚), later stylized into the modern left-right phono-semantic compound representing things riding atop water.

Semantic Evolution: Shifted from physical water buoyancy to generalized abstract meanings such as superficiality, instability, and things floating or surplus.

The right component 孚 also provides the pronunciation sound 'fú' found in other characters.

6. Sinosphere

🇻🇳

Sino-Vietnamese

phù

Similar rising or level nuance depending on citation forms.

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: フ / Kun: u.ku, fu.ku

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

부

Sound Shift Bridge: The initial 'f' sound in Mandarin frequently corresponds to historical labial stops or fricatives in neighboring language borrowings.

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

Imagine dropping a light bird feather (孚) into a pool of water (氵); because it is so light, it immediately begins to FLOAT (fú) right on the surface.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

孵

fūto hatchAdds the bird (卵) component for hatching eggs.

俘

fúcaptive / prisonerAdds the person radical (亻) for human captives.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

抚(fǔ)

Uses the hand radical (扌) instead of water (氵), meaning to comfort or stroke rather than float.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

这艘船在海面上[___]着。

Clue: fú

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the right-side phonetic component 孚 with similar-looking graphs like 受, leading to incorrect stroke orders.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see 浮, what primary physical action on water does it represent?

Production: How do you write the character for 'to float' (fú) combining water and its phonetic helper?

浮fúto float

Speed:

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