予 (yǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “to give”. It is written from ㇇ (horizontal-turning stroke) and ㇔ (dot stroke) and ㇇ (horizontal-turning stroke) and ㇚ (vertical stroke with hook), and takes 4 strokes.
Build the character for “to give; to grant”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
㇇ + ㇔ + ㇇ + ㇚
Overlapping structure
- ㇇ horizontal-turning stroke unknown
- ㇔ dot stroke unknown
- ㇇ horizontal-turning stroke unknown
- ㇚ vertical stroke with hook unknown
Structure from: Unicode U+4E88 and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (four strokes: 横撇 / 点 / 横撇 / 竖钩)
Memory aid
A horizontal-turning stroke (㇇) folds over at the top like an open hand. A dot (㇔) sits under it as the thing being handed over. A second, much wider horizontal-turning stroke (㇇) reaches out to the receiver, and a hooked vertical (㇚) drops through the middle — the gift passed straight down.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
4 strokes
In real words
- 予以yǔ yǐto give; to grant; to render予 = yǔspoken asyú yǐ
Go deeper
All readings
to give; to grant
to give; to grant; to bestow (formal, mostly written Chinese)
给；授予。多用于书面语，后面常带另一个动词。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 予以yǔ yǐto give; to grant; to render予 = yǔspoken asyú yǐ
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 予 mean?
予 (yǔ) means to give; to grant; to bestow (formal, mostly written Chinese).
How do you pronounce 予?
It is pronounced yǔ.
What parts is 予 made of?
㇇ (horizontal-turning stroke) and ㇔ (dot stroke) and ㇇ (horizontal-turning stroke) and ㇚ (vertical stroke with hook). The recorded source is: Unicode U+4E88 and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (four strokes: 横撇 / 点 / 横撇 / 竖钩). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 予 have?
4. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 予?
亅. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 予?
Common ones are 予以. The reading of 予 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.