睡 (shuì) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

睡

shuì[shui4]Tone 4

to sleep

HSK 1

Guru Deep Dive

English · to sleep

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:13

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (eye radical) should be compact and slightly narrower, leaving ample breathing room for the right side (垂) to extend its horizontal strokes stably.

1. Meaning

to sleep

to lie down

VerbNeutral#daily routine#human body#rest

Sample Usage

我想睡觉。
Wǒ xiǎng shuìjiào.
I want to sleep.
你几点睡？
Nǐ jǐ diǎn shuì?
What time do you go to sleep?

2. Sound

/[ʂu̯eɪ̯⁵¹]/Tone: 51

睡

shuìshui4

`(51)

=shuì

Initial Consonant

Type: Retroflex Fricative

Sounds like: sh sound with tongue curled back

UnaspiratedRetroflex

Airflow Tactile Test: Hollow wind sound through curled tongue channel.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip curled back near the hard palate, creating friction without touching

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -i vowel group

Sounds like: rhymes with 'way' in English

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

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

Abbreviated Rhyme Rule: ui is short for uei

Tone

T4 (51)

5 → 1 (51)

4th Tone (High-Falling)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 starts high and drops sharply to the bottom, like a command or a definitive 'No!'.

👂

Listening trap: Beginners often confuse the retroflex initial 'sh-' with the dental 's-', or mishear the final '-ui' (which expands to -uei) as a pure '-i'.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Tone 4 is a sharp downward chop with the hand, mirroring a quick nod or a heavy sigh of falling asleep.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 13 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (eye radical) should be compact and slightly narrower, leaving ample breathing room for the right side (垂) to extend its horizontal strokes stably.

4. Components

Radical 目 · Eye radical (Eye)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 目 (Indicates that sleeping is done with the eyes closed.)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 垂 (original sound: chuí / shuì)

The eye character (目) on the left paired with the hanging/drooping character (垂) on the right shows your eyes drooping down when you go to sleep.

目 Eye (semantic clue for sleep)
垂 Drooping/hanging down (phonetic and semantic clue)

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

11· Phonetic Root: 垂 (chuí)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally combined the eye (目) symbol to represent closing one's eyes and the phonetic component 垂 indicating a drooping posture or falling weight.

Semantic Evolution: Shifted from the physical act of drooping one's eyelids to the general state of sleeping and resting.

In ancient oracle scripts, sleeping was often depicted simply as a person lying down with closed eyes.

6. Sinosphere

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: スイ (sui) / Kun: ね.る (ne.ru), すい.ねる (sui.neru)

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

When it's time to **sleep** (shuì), your **eyes** (目) start to **droop down** (垂) like heavy window blinds closing for the night.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

垂

chuíto hang downWithout the eye radical, it means hanging or drooping.

锤

chuíhammerReplaces the eye with a metal radical (钅) for a heavy striking tool.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

谁(shuí)

Means 'who'. Uses the speech radical (讠) on the left instead of the eye radical (目).

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

我今天很累，想早点[___]。

Clue: shuì

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the character structure with 谁 (shuí - who) because of the identical right-hand component 垂.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: What does 睡 mean and how is it pronounced with tones?

Production: How do you write the character for 'to sleep' using the eye and drooping components?

睡shuìto sleep

Speed:

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