Character: 王 (wáng) king
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土 | |
writing patterns, not components
The three horizontal strokes, from top to bottom, represent “sky (fate),” “human,” and “earth,” and the vertical stroke is the connection that puts them together, namely, the one who has all the things above is 王 (wáng) “king.”
Used as a component
When 王 (wáng) serves as a component and takes the left side, the bottom stoke rises from 一 to ㇀ to give space to the other component on the right, for example, 王 in 现 (xiàn) “to appear.”
| wáng 王 king |
zhǔ 主 main |
wán 玩 to play |
xiàn 现 to appear |
|---|
In traditional Chinese, a component that appears to have the shape of 王 (wáng), e.g., 王 in 玩, is usually a simplification of 玉 (yù) “jade.” However, this component is now categorized as 王 (wáng) “king” in simplified Chinese based on the shape.
Used as a morpheme/word
Wordlist
- HSK 5: 国王 (guówáng) king (of a country)
- HSK 5: 王子 (wángzǐ) prince
- Advanced: 女王 (nǚwáng) queen
- Advanced: 王 (wáng) king
- Advanced: 王国 (wángguó) kingdom
How to pronounce
This character sounds like “wand” but ends with an ng sound.
| 2nd | Pinyin | Yale | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Final | -uang | wang | [ʊɑŋ] |
