萍 (píng) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

萍

píng[ping2]Tone 2

duckweed

HSK 7

Guru Deep Dive

English · duckweed

Cached lesson

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Topology:Top-bottom

Strokes:11

Writing Balance Rule: The top grass radical (艹) should sit flat and wide like a crown, while the bottom phonetic component (萍) must be balanced evenly with vertical stability.

1. Meaning

duckweed

wanderingdrifting

NounLiteraryBound morpheme#plants#nature#water

Sample Usage

浮萍
fúpíng
floating duckweed (often used metaphorically for wanderers)
萍水相逢
píngshuǐxiāngféng
chance meeting of strangers like drifting duckweed on water

2. Sound

/[pʰiŋ³⁵]/Tone: 35

萍

píngping2

´(35)

=píng

Build the syllable

Step-by-step blending

ping

Tone mark placement: Tone mark sits on "i" per main-vowel priority (a > e > o; in -iu/-ui the mark takes the second vowel).

Initial Consonant

Type: Aspirated Bilabial

Sounds like: p sound as in 'pen'

Aspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Strong puff of air! A tissue held before lips MUST fly forward.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Lips pressed together then released with a strong puff of air.

Final Rhyme

ing

Vowel Group: -i vowel group

Sounds like: -ing rhymes with 'sing'

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

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 starts at a mid pitch and rises sharply to the top, exactly like asking 'Huh?' or 'What?' in English when seeking clarification.

Sandhi: When followed by another Tone 2, it shifts slightly, though typically maintains its rising contour.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing it with bīng (ice) or pìng due to mishearing the aspiration or tone.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Raise your hand upward and to the right, mimicking a rising question mark or an airplane taking off.

3. Writing

Topology: Top-bottom · Strokes: 11 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The top grass radical (艹) should sit flat and wide like a crown, while the bottom phonetic component (萍) must be balanced evenly with vertical stability.

4. Components

Radical 艹 · Grass Radical (Plants, vegetation)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 艹 (Indicates that this character refers to a type of plant or vegetation.)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 平 (original sound: píng)

The grass radical (艹) sits on top of the character 'flat/level' (平), symbolizing a flat green plant spreading across the water surface.

艹 Grass/plant semantic clue
平 píng phonetic sound and level sense

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

2· Phonetic Root: 泙 (píng)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Combined from the grass radical (艹) denoting plants and píng (平) providing the phonetic sound and the image of spreading flat on water.

Semantic Evolution: Originally referred specifically to duckweed floating flat on ponds; later expanded metaphorically to describe drifting, rootless wandering.

Duckweed floats unanchored, which led poets to use it as a powerful metaphor for human displacement.

6. Sinosphere

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

Imagine a tiny green PLANT (艹) spreading FLAT (平) like a flat 'ping' pong table floating across the pond surface—this is duckweed!

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

泙

píngsound of water splashingPhonetic Core (声旁)

Explore this family →

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

平(píng)

平 means flat without the grass radical (艹) on top.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

人生如浮[___]，飘泊不定。

Clue: píng

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the phonetic part 平 with similar characters or forgetting the top grass radical when writing from memory.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see 萍, what is its primary botanical meaning and tone?

Production: How do you write 'duckweed' (píng) combining the grass radical and the phonetic component for flat?

萍píngduckweed

Speed:

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