Writing Balance Rule: The outer enclosure box should be slightly taller than it is wide, with the inner parallel strokes neatly stacked inside without touching the right wall.
1. Meaning
meat, flesh
pulp of a fruitsquashy or flabbyirresolute or sluggish
Sounds like: retroflex approximant (similar to American r with tongue curled back)
UnaspiratedRetroflex
Airflow Tactile Test: Voiced vibration in throat with curled tongue.
Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip curled back toward the hard palate without touching it, lips slightly rounded.
Final Rhyme
ou
Vowel Group: -o vowel group
Sounds like: -ou rhymes with oh/soul
Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'oh'.
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 straight down, just like saying an emphatic 'No!' or 'Stop!' in English.
Sandhi: When followed by another Tone 4 syllable, the tone 4 contour of ròu may shorten slightly in rapid speech.
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Listening trap: Confusing the retroflex 'r-' initial with an English 'r' or French 'r', or confusing Tone 4 falling pitch with Tone 3 dipping pitch.
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Physical Tone Gesture: A sharp, decisive chop downward with your hand, mirroring the high-to-low plummet of Tone 4.
3. Writing
Topology: Full enclosure · Strokes: 6 strokes
Writing Balance Rule: The outer enclosure box should be slightly taller than it is wide, with the inner parallel strokes neatly stacked inside without touching the right wall.
4. Components
Radical肉 · Meat radical (meat or flesh)
Semantic Clue (形旁):肉 (Depicts slices of meat hanging on a hook or layered flesh.)
The outer frame represents the boundaries of a cut of meat or skin, while the two slanted strokes inside represent layers of fat and lean muscle fibers.
冂 Container or outer boundary
人 Stacked inner strokes representing flesh layers
5. History
Liushu category: Pictogram (象形)
Origin: In Oracle Bone script, 肉 was drawn as a realistic cross-section of striped animal meat or a side of ribs showing flesh hanging down.
Semantic Evolution: Originally referring strictly to animal flesh or human muscle, the meaning expanded metaphorically to describe the edible pulp of fruits, and further into colloquial descriptions of flabby texture or irresolute personality.
As a radical, 肉 often transforms into 月 (the 'meat moon' variant) when placed on the left side or bottom of characters like 脸 (face) or 胃 (stomach).
6. Sinosphere
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Kanji (Japanese)
On: ニク / Kun: しし
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Hanja (Korean)
육
7. Memory
Vivid Mnemonic Story
Imagine a butcher shop where a slab of meat hangs inside a doorway (冂). Inside, two people (人) are slicing off juicy steaks with sharp knives.
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
内
nèiinsideSimilar box outline, but uses a vertical drop stroke instead of meat slices inside.
腐
fǔdecay / tofuCombines the meat/flesh radical on the left with a government building roof on top.
Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)
内(nèi)
肉 (meat) has two slanted strokes inside representing flesh; 内 (inside) has a single downward hook stroke inside representing entering.
月(yuè)
月 (moon) has horizontal lines inside; 肉 (meat) features slanted 人-like strokes inside.
8. Mastery
Active Recall Challenge
我今天中午想吃[___]。
Clue: ròu
Common Learner Pitfall
Writing the inner components like the character 内 (nèi) or mixing up the internal strokes with the moon radical 月 (yuè).
Memory Prompts
Recognition: What does the character 肉 mean and how do you pronounce it with tones?
Production: How do you write the character for 'meat' (ròu) starting from its outer enclosure?
Real-World Video Context
Watch authentic native speakers pronounce and explain this word in real-world YouTube videos.
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肉ròumeat
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