Pinyin	tǔ
Meaning	soil; earth; dirt; terra; clay
Radical	土	繁體字	same

十

writing patterns, not components

category: pictograph

structure: single

3stroke count

HSK 5

This character is a pictogram, and its shape resembles a pile of soil on the ground. When writing 土 (tǔ) “soil,” make sure that the top horizontal stroke is shorter than the bottom one, or else, it would be a completely different character, 士 (shì) “man (old).”

Used as a component

土 (tǔ) is often used to form other characters that are connected to the earth, ground, or soil. When it takes the left side of a character, the bottom stoke rises from 一 to ㇀ to give space to the other component on the right, for example, 土 in 块 (kuài) “piece.”

Used as a morpheme/word

土 (tǔ) is rarely used alone in a sentence as a word by itself, and it often serves as a morpheme, for example, 泥土 (nítǔ) “mud.”

How to pronounce

This character sounds like too, as in “tool.”