鸭 (yā) is a Chinese character meaning “duck”. It is written from 甲 (shell; armour; first of the ten heavenly stems) and 鸟 (bird), side by side, and takes 10 strokes.
Build the character for “duck”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
甲 + 鸟
Left–right structure
Structure from: 广韵 (鴨，烏甲切); modern glyph split verified against hanzi-writer-data strokes 0–4 = 甲, 5–9 = 鸟
Memory aid
A bird (鸟) with a hard shell (甲) of a body — waddling along the water, that armoured bird is the duck.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
10 strokes
In real words
- 鸭子yā zǐduck鸭 = yāspoken asyā zi
- 烤鸭kǎo yāroast duck鸭 = yā
Questions people ask about this character
What does 鸭 mean?
鸭 (yā) means duck.
How do you pronounce 鸭?
It is pronounced yā.
What parts is 鸭 made of?
甲 (shell; armour; first of the ten heavenly stems) and 鸟 (bird), side by side. The recorded source is: 广韵 (鴨，烏甲切); modern glyph split verified against hanzi-writer-data strokes 0–4 = 甲, 5–9 = 鸟. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 鸭 have?
10. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 鸭?
鸟. 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 鸭?
Common ones are 鸭子 and 烤鸭. The reading of 鸭 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.