汝 (rǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “you”. It is written from 氵 (water (left-side form)) and 女 (woman; female), side by side, and takes 6 strokes.
Build the character for “you (literary "thou")”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
氵 + 女
Left–right structure
Structure from: 说文解字·水部「汝，水。出弘農盧氏還歸山，東入淮。从水女聲」；现代字形拆分经 hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验：6 画 = 氵 3 画 + 女 3 画；部首取康熙 85 水部
Memory aid
Water (氵) on the left, 女 on the right. Both parts really are in this character: 女 is here for its sound, not its meaning — think of calling across the river to the person on the other bank: you.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
6 strokes
In real words
- 汝等rǔ děngyou (plural); ye — literary/classical汝 = rǔspoken asrú děng
- 汝州Rǔ zhōuRuzhou (a city in Henan, on the Ru River)汝 = rǔ
Go deeper
All readings
you (literary)
you; thou — a literary/classical second-person pronoun, still seen in set phrases, quotations and place names
文言中的第二人称代词，相当于「你」；也用于汝水、汝州等地名。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 汝等rǔ děngyou (plural); ye — literary/classical汝 = rǔspoken asrú děng
- 汝州Rǔ zhōuRuzhou (a city in Henan, on the Ru River)汝 = rǔ
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 汝 mean?
汝 (rǔ) means you; thou — a literary/classical second-person pronoun, still seen in set phrases, quotations and place names.
How do you pronounce 汝?
It is pronounced rǔ.
What parts is 汝 made of?
氵 (water (left-side form)) and 女 (woman; female), side by side. The recorded source is: 说文解字·水部「汝，水。出弘農盧氏還歸山，東入淮。从水女聲」；现代字形拆分经 hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验：6 画 = 氵 3 画 + 女 3 画；部首取康熙 85 水部. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 汝 have?
6. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 汝?
水. 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 汝?
Common ones are 汝等 and 汝州. The reading of 汝 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.