The character 因 (yīn): cause
- Pronunciation
- yīn
- Strokes
- 6
- Radical
- 囗
- Made of
- 囗大
What it means
cause; reason; because
Where its shape comes from
Xu Shen glosses it as "to rely on" and takes it apart into the two pieces we still see today. The earliest forms show something quite different, and that is the reading palaeographers keep: a mat spread out and viewed from above, with a person lying on it. The character named the mat first, a word now written 茵 yīn, then whatever one leans on, then the cause. The modern meaning stands at the end of a chain of shifts. It is not in the picture.
Source: Xu Shen, Shuowen Jiezi (121 CE); the Chinese University of Hong Kong character database.
A way to remember it
The 大 of the fourth row, shut inside a square frame. Its bar TOUCHES both uprights, left and right, which is the opposite of 问, where the inner square touches nothing at all. And the bottom of the frame is written LAST, after everything it encloses.
This is a memory aid, not the origin of the character.
Words it appears in
- 因为 yīn wèi · HSK 2 because; owing to; on account of
- 因此 yīn cǐ · HSK 4 thus; consequently; as a result
- 原因 yuán yīn · HSK 4 cause; origin; root cause; reason; CL:個|个[ge4]
- 因素 yīn sù · HSK 5 element; factor; CL:個|个[ge4]
- 因而 yīn ér · HSK 5 therefore; as a result; thus; and as a result, ...
- 基因 jī yīn · HSK 6 gene (loanword)
Writing it
See the stroke order of 因, animated stroke by stroke.