ZHIZHI 知止 · LEARN CHINESE DAILY

rain

8 strokes · 雨 — pictograph: drops falling from a cloud under the sky · HSK 2

Where 雨 comes from

The sky as a horizontal line, a cloud hanging beneath it, and four drops falling in two columns. It is one of the most transparent pictographs in the language — three thousand years of writing reform and the rain is still visibly falling.

雨 in Chinese culture

雨 sits on top of nearly all the weather: 雪 (snow), 雷 (thunder), 电 (lightning, in its traditional form 電), 雾 (fog), 需 (need — originally waiting out the rain). 下雨 is 'rain falls', and 风雨 (wind and rain) stands for hardship endured together.

Example

下雨 xiàyǔ — to rain

今天下雨了。
Jīntiān xià yǔ le.
It rained today.

How to remember it

The sky on top, a cloud below it, and four drops of RAIN falling inside.

Almost every weather word wears 雨 as a hat: 雪 snow, 雷 thunder, 雾 fog, 霜 frost. Look for the rain and you have found the forecast.

Same sound, different tones

2nd yú
fish
3rd yǔ
rain
4th yù
jade

Words unlocked by 雨

下雨 xiàyǔ
to rain
大雨 dàyǔ
heavy rain

Related characters

LEARN 雨 WITH STROKE-BY-STROKE WRITING → DOWNLOAD ZHIZHI
One character a morning · 455-character HSK library · iOS