Writing Balance Rule: Center the vertical drop stroke directly down the middle, and space the four falling drops evenly inside the upper window frame.
1. Meaning
rain
rainfallprecipitation
noun / verbNeutral#weather#nature#meteorology
Sample Usage
今天下雨了。
jīn tiān xià yǔ le.
It is raining today.
外面雨很大。
wài miàn yǔ hěn dà.
It is raining heavily outside.
2. Sound
/[y²¹⁴]/Tone: 214
雨
yǔyu3
|
++
ˇ(214)
=yǔ
Initial Consonant
y
Type: Palatal Glide (Zero Initial)
Sounds like: zero-initial glide
Unaspirated
Airflow Tactile Test: Acts as a bridge into 'i' or 'ü' vowel sounds.
Tongue & Mouth Position: Rounded lips, tongue arching high forward for ü
Final Rhyme
u
Vowel Group: -v vowel group
Sounds like: rounded yee sound
Note: Written as 'u', pronounced as rounded 'ü' [y].
Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ü'.
Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.
Tone
T3 (214)
2 → 1 → 4 (214)
3rd Tone (Low-Dipping)
Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 3 dips low like a hesitant downward nod before recovering upwards.
Sandhi: When followed by another 3rd tone syllable, yǔ changes to a 2nd tone (rising 35), e.g., yǔshuǐ becomes yúshuǐ.
👂
Listening trap: Beginners often mistake the rounded front vowel ü for the plain English 'oo' or 'ee', failing to shape the mouth properly with rounded lips while producing an 'ee' tongue position.
👋
Physical Tone Gesture: Start at a normal speaking pitch, dip down smoothly to the lowest point of your vocal range, and then rise slightly back up, like tracing a checkmark in the air.
3. Writing
Topology: Single character · Strokes: 8 strokes
Writing Balance Rule: Center the vertical drop stroke directly down the middle, and space the four falling drops evenly inside the upper window frame.
4. Components
Radical雨 · Rain Radical (rain or weather phenomena)
The top horizontal line represents the sky or clouds, the enclosing box represents the falling perimeter of a rain cloud, the central vertical line is a streak of lightning or steady stream, and the four dots inside are raindrops falling downward.
一 The sky / cloud canopy
冂 The boundaries of the rain cloud
丨 Central falling stream
丶 Individual raindrops
5. History
Liushu category: Pictogram (象形)
Origin: In Oracle Bone script, the character clearly depicted a cloud hanging in the sky with drops of water falling beneath it.
Semantic Evolution: Over millennia, the pictographic drops evolved into neat dots, and the cloud outline transformed into standard square box structures, but the core imagery of water falling from the sky remains instantly recognizable.
As a radical (Radical 173), it forms the foundation for almost all Chinese characters related to weather, storms, snow, and atmospheric conditions.
6. Sinosphere
🇻🇳
Sino-Vietnamese
vũ
Mandarin tone 3 (low dipping) corresponds to Vietnamese hỏi or ngã tone dynamics depending on historical register.
🇯🇵
Kanji (Japanese)
On: ウ (u) / Kun: あめ (ame), あま (ama)
🇰🇷
Hanja (Korean)
우
7. Memory
Vivid Mnemonic Story
Imagine a dark cloud hanging in the sky (the top roof and box). Suddenly, a streak of lightning strikes down the middle, and four heavy raindrops splash down onto the ground.
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
雪
xuěsnowRain at the top (雨) with a sweeping broom below to brush away the snow.
雷
léithunderRain at the top (雨) with a rice field (田) rumbling underneath like thunder rolling over farmland.
零
língzeroRain at the top (雨) with command/order (令) below, representing tiny falling raindrops.
Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)
两(liǎng)
两 means 'two/both' and features a roof lid (冖) over a person-like structure, lacking the four interior raindrops of 雨.
8. Mastery
Active Recall Challenge
外面正在下[___]，出门记得带伞。
Clue: yǔ
Common Learner Pitfall
Writing the four internal dots incorrectly: learners often draw them all pointing in the same direction or placing them outside the bounding box instead of neatly tucked inside underneath the top cloud bar.
Memory Prompts
Recognition: What weather phenomenon does the character 雨 depict, and how is it pronounced with tone?
Production: How do you write the character for 'rain' (yǔ) starting from the cloud canopy down to the falling raindrops?
Real-World Video Context
Watch authentic native speakers pronounce and explain this word in real-world YouTube videos.
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雨yǔrain
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