The character 会 (huì): to meet
- Pronunciation
- huì
- Strokes
- 6
- Level
- HSK 1
- Radical
- 人
- Made of
- 人云
What it means
can; to have the skill; to know how to; to be likely to; to be sure to; to meet; to get together; meeting; gathering; (suffix) union; group; association; (bound form) a moment (Taiwan pr. [hui3])
Where its shape comes from
The long form is 會, glossed by Xu Shen as "to bring together". What it pictures is disputed. He reads two elements, one of them abbreviated, while palaeographers read on the bronzes a vessel and its lid closing one upon the other, hence things that come together. The short form used in mainland China revives an old abbreviation in use long before the 1956 tables adopted it. Its two present pieces are not components: the top does not say person, the bottom does not say cloud, and neither carries the sound.
Source: Xu Shen, Shuowen Jiezi (121 CE); the Chinese Character Simplification Scheme (1956); the Chinese University of Hong Kong character database.
A way to remember it
A wide inverted V for a roof, the roof of 人, and under it the whole of 云 yún from the nineteenth row: a short bar, a longer bar, then the curve and its dot. Count BOTH bars, because the reflex is to draw only one.
This is a memory aid, not the origin of the character.
Words it appears in
- 机会 jī huì · HSK 3 opportunity; chance; occasion; CL:個|个[ge4]
- 会议 huì yì · HSK 3 meeting; conference; CL:場|场[chang3],屆|届[jie4]
- 一会儿 yī huì r · HSK 3 a moment; a while; in a moment; now...now...; also pr. [yi1 hui3 r5]
- 社会 shè huì · HSK 4 society; CL:個|个[ge4]
- 聚会 jù huì · HSK 4 party; gathering; to meet; to get together
- 约会 yuē huì · HSK 4 appointment; engagement; date; CL:次[ci4],個|个[ge4]; to arrange to meet
Writing it
See the stroke order of 会, animated stroke by stroke.