離 (lí) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

離

lí[li2]Tone 2

to leave

HSK 2

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离

Guru Deep Dive

English · to leave

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:11

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (the bird-like radical) and the right side (the short component with the pestle) must be balanced evenly without either side crowding the centerline.

Simplification Logic: The traditional form 離 contains complex components representing a mythical beast being caught or escaping, which were simplified into standardized graphical strokes in the modern character 离.

1. Meaning

to leave, part from, or be away from

to indicate distance (from point A to point B)without something or independent ofone of the Eight Trigrams (Baqua) symbolizing fire ☲surname Li

Verb / PrepositionNeutral#movement#separation#spatial relations#philosophy

Sample Usage

我离开北京了。
wǒ lí kāi běijīng le.
I have left Beijing.
学校离我家很近。
xuéxiào lí wǒ jiā hěn jìn.
The school is very close to my home.

2. Sound

/[li³⁵]/Tone: 35

離

líli2

´(35)

=lí

Initial Consonant

Type: Alveolar Lateral

Sounds like: l sound

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Air flows freely around both sides of tongue.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Touch the tip of your tongue gently against the alveolar ridge right behind your upper front teeth.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -i vowel group

Sounds like: ee sound

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

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 like asking a question in English, e.g., 'Huh?' or 'Really?'

Sandhi: When followed by another Tone 2 syllable, it undergoes normal Tone 2 sandhi rules if spoken rapidly, though typically it maintains its rising pitch.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the rising Tone 2 (lí) with Tone 3 (lǐ) or Tone 4 (lì), which completely changes the grammatical meaning.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A rising hand gesture starting from mid-chest and moving sharply upward to the ceiling, matching the Tone 2 rising pitch.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 11 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (the bird-like radical) and the right side (the short component with the pestle) must be balanced evenly without either side crowding the centerline.

4. Components

Radical 亠 · Lid Radical (lid or top enclosure)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 离 (Conveys the core notion of parting, separating, or hanging apart.)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 离 (original sound: lí)

Visualize a creature caught under a lid (亠), pulling apart and struggling to leave its enclosure.

亠 lid / roof component
凶 underlying structure denoting misfortune or separation

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

12· Phonetic Root: 离 (chī)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally depicted a mythical bird (like a long-tailed bird or falcon) spreading its wings to fly away, symbolizing departure and separation.

Semantic Evolution: From the physical image of a bird flying away or separating, the meaning generalized to any form of parting, distance, or independence.

In the Yijing (Book of Changes), 离 (lí) represents the trigram for fire, brightness, and attachment.
It has been used as a Chinese surname for millennia.

6. Sinosphere

🇻🇳

Sino-Vietnamese

Mandarin rising tone (2) corresponds closely to Vietnamese hỏi or sắc depending on historical register, read here as 'ly'.

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: リ (ri) / Kun: はな.れる (hanareru)

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

리

Sound Shift Bridge: Shared East Asian cultural vocabulary root 'ly/ri' meaning departure or separation.

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

A bird flies away from under a lid (亠) into the sky, ready to LEAVE (lí) everything behind.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

漓

lídripping / flowingAdd water (氵) to get 漓 (as in Guilin's Lijiang River 漓江).

璃

líglassAdd jade (王/玉) to get 璃 (as in glass 玻璃 bōlí).

篱

lífenceAdd bamboo (⺮) to get 篱 (fence/hedge).

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

里(lǐ)

里 means inside or a unit of distance and has a field (田) component at the bottom, whereas 离 means to leave.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

我家[___]學校很遠。

Clue: lí

Common Learner Pitfall

Forgetting that '离' acts like a preposition in distance/time descriptions, placing it after the destination instead of between the two reference points.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: What does '离' mean when used to describe distance between two places?

Production: How do you write the character for 'to leave' or 'from (distance)' with pinyin 'lí'?

離líto leave

Speed:

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