The character 样 (yàng): shape
- Pronunciation
- yàng
- Strokes
- 10
- Level
- HSK6
- Radical
- 木
- Made of
- 木羊
What it means
manner; pattern; way; appearance; shape; classifier: kind, type
Where its shape comes from
The long form is written 樣, and Xu Shen gives it for the FRUIT of an oak, an acorn. He analyses it as 木, with 羕 (yàng) for the sound: the tree says what is being talked about, the rest supplies the reading. Today's meaning, model, kind, appearance, has nothing to do with that acorn; it settled on the same character later, as often happens in Chinese. The 1956 simplification replaced 羕 with 羊, which was already its sound-bearing core.
Source: Xu Shen, Shuowen Jiezi (121 CE); the Chinese Character Simplification Scheme (1956); the Chinese University of Hong Kong character database.
How it used to be written
-
Chu manuscripts 戰國.楚 -
Chu manuscripts 戰國.楚
Forms, sources and dates: the 字形演變 database of 小學堂, Academia Sinica, public domain (CC0).
A way to remember it
Two characters already learned, shoulder to shoulder: 木 on the left, 羊 on the right. The tree tightens to leave room, exactly as it does in 林 and in 相: its last stroke, which ought to sweep down to the right, shrinks to a dot against the trunk.
This is a memory aid, not the origin of the character.
Words it appears in
- 怎么样 zěn me yàng · HSK1 how?; how about?; how was it?; how are things?
- 这样 zhè yàng · HSK2 this kind of; so; this way; like this; such
- 那样 nà yàng · HSK2 that kind; that sort
- 一样 yī yàng · HSK3 same; like; equal to; the same as; just like
- 怎样 zěn yàng · HSK3 how; what kind
- 同样 tóng yàng · HSK4 same; equal; similar; similarly; also; too
See the 18 HSK words built on 样, grouped by level.
Writing it
See the stroke order of 样, animated stroke by stroke.