余 (yú): (literary) I, me, extra, surplus

余 (yú) is a Chinese character meaning “(literary) i.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 人 (structural). It ranks #729 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (literary) I
  2. me
  3. extra
  4. surplus

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Practice writing 余 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 余

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
业余adjectiveyè yúin one's spare time5
其余pronounqí yúthe rest5
多余verb/adjectiveduō yúsuperfluous6
剩余verbshèng yúto remain6
余额nounyú ébalance (of an account, bill etc)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
余生nounyú shēngthe remaining years of one's life
余地nounyú dìmargin
余下verbyú xiàremaining
残余verbcán yúremnant
不遗余力phrasebù yí yú lìto spare no pains or effort (idiom)
绰绰有余phrasechuò chuò yǒu yú(idiom) more than enough
游刃有余yóu rèn yǒu yúhandling a butcher's cleaver with ease (idiom)
空余kòng yúfree
余震nounyú zhènearthquake aftershock
课余adjectivekè yúafter school
一览无余phraseyī lǎn wú yúto cover all at one glance (idiom)
死有余辜phrasesǐ yǒu yú gū(idiom) to be so evil that even death would be insufficient punishment
心有余悸xīn yǒu yú jìto have lingering fears
余光yú guāng(out of) the corner of one's eyes
富余verbfù yuin surplus
100
Total compounds
54
As first character
29
As last character
17
As middle character

余 appears in 100 compound words: 54 as the first character, 29 as the last, and 17 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 余 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

剩shèng
0.61413,002 co-occurrences
冗rǒng
0.5211,370 co-occurrences
万wàn
0.51119,204 co-occurrences
瘟wēn
0.51010 co-occurrences
残cán
0.4974,108 co-occurrences
亩mǔ
0.4961,761 co-occurrences
杭háng
0.4723,406 co-occurrences
百bǎi
0.43610,948 co-occurrences
业yè
0.43113,514 co-occurrences
课kè
0.4242,092 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (20)

不遗余力bùyíyúlìHSK 5+

to do all one can; to do one's utmost; to spare no effort; to go all-out

phrase
茶余饭饱chá yú fàn bǎoHSK 5+

see 茶餘飯後|茶余饭后

phrase
茶余饭后cháyúfànhòuHSK 5+

leisure time; free time

phrase
茶余酒后cháyújiǔhòuHSK 5+

leisure time; free time

phrase
绰绰有余chuòchuòyǒuyúHSK 7+

more than sufficient; ample

phrase
虎口余生hǔkǒuyúshēngHSK 5+

to survive a disaster; to have a narrow escape

phrase
恢恢有余huī huī yǒu yúHSK 5+

lit. to have an abundance of space; room to maneuver (idiom)

phrase
积恶余殃jī è yú yāngHSK 7+

Accumulated evil will be repaid in suffering (idiom).

phrase
劫后余生jiéhòuyúshēngHSK 7+

to survive a disaster; to outlive a calamity

phrase
留有余地liú yǒu yú dìHSK 5+

to leave some leeway; to allow for the unpredictable

phrase
剩余价值shèngyújiàzhíHSK 5+

surplus value

noun
双曲余割shuāng qū yú gēHSK 6+

hyperbolic cosecant, i.e. function cosech(x)

phrase

Showing 12 of 20 idioms containing 余.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

那个余影在月光下显得格外孤独。

nā gě yú yǐng zài yuè guāng xià xiǎn dé gé wài gū dú .

That lingering shadow appeared especially lonely in the moonlight.

LtnFeb 2026

台中市38家厨余养猪场 目前5家申请转型

tái zhōng shì 3 8 jiā chú yú yǎng zhū chǎng mù qián 5 jiā shēn qǐng zhuǎn xíng

Taichung City's 38 food waste pig farms are currently 5 applying for transformation

99 健康网Feb 2026

男生小便完甩一下和膀胱排空有关吗?确保残余尿最少对吗

nán shēng xiǎo biàn wán shuǎi yī xià hé bǎng 胱 pái kōng yǒu guān ma ? què bǎo cán yú niào zuì shǎo duì ma

Is it related to bladder emptying after a boy urinating? Make sure residual urine is minimal, right?

WorldjournalFeb 2026

“庆余年”男星“状告生父”历史被挖 摇身金牌讲...

qìng yú nián nán xīng zhuàng gào shēng fù lì shǐ bèi wā yáo shēn jīn pái jiǎng . . .

"Qing Yu Nian" male star "sued his biological father" for "history was dug up and turned into a gold medal to say...

東方日報Feb 2026

老妇创意善用厨余 巧手制艺术品

lǎo fù chuàng yì shàn yòng chú yú qiǎo shǒu zhì yì shù pǐn

The old woman creatively uses kitchen waste to make artworks by hand

百度新闻Feb 2026

...湘潭我的家·新春走基层丨湖南裕能:600余名职..

. . . 湘 tán wǒ de jiā xīn chūn zǒu jī céng 丨 hú nán yù néng : 6 0 0 yú míng zhí . .

... Xiangtan My Home, New Year Grassroots Level丨Hunan Yuneng: More than 600 positions:

Tatoeba

你有多余的钥匙吗?

Nǐ yǒu duōyú de yàoshi ma?

Do you have an extra key?

Tatoeba

我的业余爱好是拍野花的照片。

Wǒ de yèyú àihào shì pāi yěhuā de zhàopiàn.

My hobby is taking pictures of wild flowers.

Tatoeba

我想和你共渡余生。

Wǒ xiǎng hé nǐ gòng dù yú shēng.

I want to spend my life with you.

Tatoeba

他不遗余力帮助我。

Tā bùyíyúlì bāngzhù wǒ.

He spared no pains to help me.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced yú

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 余 (yú) mean in Chinese?
余 (yú) primarily means "(literary) i." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #729 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 余 have?
余 is written with 7 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 余?
The radical associated with 余 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 余?
余 is composed of: 人 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 余?
Common words with 余 include: 余生 (yú shēng, "the remaining years of one's life"); 业余 (yè yú, "in one's spare time"); 其余 (qí yú, "the rest"); 多余 (duō yú, "superfluous"); 余地 (yú dì, "margin"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 余 (yú)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yú: 于 ((of time or place) in), 与 (and), 语 (language), 预 (to advance), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 余 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 余 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 余 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.