ZHIZHI 知止 · LEARN CHINESE DAILY

again; also

Where 又 comes from

A right hand with three fingers. Hands repeat actions, so the hand-glyph became 'again'. As a radical it still means hand inside 对, 友, 取 — busy fingers everywhere.

又 in Chinese culture

又来了 'here we go again' — the universal eye-roll. 又...又... stacks qualities: 又快又好 fast AND good. 又 is for what already happened again; 再 is for the next time. Mixing them is the classic learner slip.

Example

How to remember it

A HAND doing the same thing — AGAIN and AGAIN.

双 'pair' is literally two 又 hands side by side — again, doubled.

Same sound, different tones

Words unlocked by 又

Related characters

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