雨 (yǔ): rain

雨 (yǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “rain.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 帀 (structural). It ranks #928 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, 雨 rain drops falling from a cloud 帀. Its radical form 雨 (rain) appears in many related characters such as 零 (líng, zero), 雪 (xuě, snow), 需 (xū, to need).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. rain

Etymology & Origin

雨

pictographicRain drops falling from a cloud 帀

Components:帀structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 雨

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
下雨verbxià yǔto rain1
雨水nounyǔ shuǐrainwater5
暴雨nounbào yǔtorrential rain5
雨衣nounyǔ yīraincoat3
风雨nounfēng yǔwind and rain6
阵雨nounzhèn yǔshower (rain)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
暴风雨nounbào fēng yǔrainstorm
大雨noundà yǔheavy rain
雨果proper-nounyǔ guǒHugo (name)
雨林nounyǔ línrainforest
雨伞nounyǔ sǎnumbrella
雨季nounyǔ jìrainy season
流星雨nounliú xīng yǔmeteor shower
热带雨林rè dài yǔ líntropical rain forest
雨天nounyǔ tiānrainy day
翻云覆雨phrasefān yún fù yǔto produce clouds with one turn of the hand and rain with another (idiom)
倾盆大雨phraseqīng pén dà yǔ(idiom) a downpour
雷雨nounléi yǔthunderstorm
雨滴nounyǔ dīraindrop
雨点nounyǔ diǎnraindrop
降雨verbjiàng yǔprecipitation
100
Total compounds
43
As first character
50
As last character
7
As middle character

雨 appears in 100 compound words: 43 as the first character, 50 as the last, and 7 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 雨 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

洼wā
0.55220 co-occurrences
暴bào
0.54320,843 co-occurrences
降jiàng
0.51328,169 co-occurrences
锋fēng
0.50951 co-occurrences
量liàng
0.48624,702 co-occurrences
棚péng
0.4781,766 co-occurrences
淋lín
0.4551,074 co-occurrences
伞sǎn
0.454512 co-occurrences
沛pèi
0.4451,126 co-occurrences
雹báo
0.444258 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (36)

暴风骤雨bàofēngzhòuyǔHSK 6+

violent storm and gusty rain

phrase
赤道雨林chì dào yǔ línHSK 7+

equatorial rain forest

phrase
春风化雨chūnfēnghuàyǔHSK 3+

benefits of education; positive influence of a teacher

phrase
大雨倾盆dà yǔ qīng pénHSK 6+

see 傾盆大雨|倾盆大雨

phrase
大雨如注dàyǔrúzhùHSK 3+

to pour down (rain)

phrase
翻云覆雨fānyúnfùyǔHSK 6+

to be fickle; to shift one's grounds constantly; to play politics; to be tricky

phrase
风吹雨打fēngchuīyǔdǎHSK 4+

to be blown by the wind and battered by the rain; to experience setbacks or hardships

phrase
风霜雨雪fēngshuāng-yǔxuěHSK 7+

all kinds of hardships and sufferings

phrase
风雨晦冥fēng yǔ huì míng

conditions of extreme adversity (idiom)

phrase
风雨飘摇fēngyǔpiāoyáoHSK 6+

turbulent; precarious; tottering

phrase
风雨凄凄fēng yǔ qī qīHSK 7+

wretched wind and rain

phrase
风雨如晦fēngyǔrúhuì

bad times with no end in sight

phrase

Showing 12 of 36 idioms containing 雨.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

下雨天出门记得带伞,以免淋湿。

Xiàyǔ tiān chūmén jìde dài sǎn, yǐmiǎn lín shī.

Remember to bring an umbrella when going out on rainy days to avoid getting wet.

TvbsFeb 2026

...天气/好天气倒数!一周2波锋面接力 这天雨最猛“连下4天”

. . . tiān qì hǎo tiān qì dǎo shǔ ! yī zhōu 2 bō fēng miàn jiē lì zhè tiān yǔ zuì měng lián xià 4 tiān

... Weather/Good Weather Countdown! 2 waves of frontal relay in a week, the rain was the heaviest on this day "4 days in a row"

三立新聞網Feb 2026

首波春雨“这时”报到 228连假天气曝光

shǒu bō chūn yǔ zhè shí bào dào 2 2 8 lián jiǎ tiān qì pù guāng

The first wave of spring rain was reported at this time, and the 228 consecutive holiday weather was exposed

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

...降温超20°C!降温继续南下,南方多地降雨频繁期开启

. . . jiàng wēn chāo 2 0 C ! jiàng wēn jì xù nán xià , nán fāng duō dì jiàng yǔ pín fán qī kāi qǐ

... Cooling exceeded 20°C! The cooling continued to move south, and frequent rainfall began in many places in the south

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

斗湖1小时豪雨引发大水患 轿车险灭顶多路中断

dǒu hú 1 xiǎo shí háo yǔ yǐn fā dà shuǐ huàn jiào chē xiǎn miè dǐng duō lù zhōng duàn

Tawau 1-hour heavy rain caused heavy flooding, and the car was almost destroyed, and many roads were interrupted

百度新闻Feb 2026

文物日历|2月18日·雨水:井饮图壁画砖

wén wù rì lì yuè rì yǔ shuǐ jǐng yǐn tú bì huà zhuān

Cultural Heritage Calendar|February 18-Rainwater: Well Drinking Picture Mural Brick

Tatoeba

可以借你的雨伞一用吗?

Kěyǐ jiè nǐ de yǔsǎn yī yòng ma?

Can I borrow your umbrella?

Tatoeba

今天下午会下雨吗?

Jīntiān xiàwǔ huì xiàyǔ ma?

Will it rain this afternoon?

Tatoeba

如果下雨的话,我们也还要去公园吗?

Rúguǒ xiàyǔ dehuà, wǒmen yě hái yào qù gōngyuán ma?

Will we also still go to the park even if it rains?

Tatoeba

刚才天气还很好,怎么会突然下雨了呢?

Gāngcái tiānqì hái hěn hǎo, zěnme huì tūrán xiàyǔ le ne?

The weather was great just a moment ago. How is it suddenly raining now?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced yǔ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 雨 (yǔ) mean in Chinese?
雨 (yǔ) primarily means "rain." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #928 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 雨 have?
雨 is written with 8 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 雨?
The radical associated with 雨 is 雨 (rain). This radical appears in many characters related to rain.
What are the components of 雨?
雨 is composed of: 帀 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 雨?
Common words with 雨 include: 下雨 (xià yǔ, "to rain"); 暴风雨 (bào fēng yǔ, "rainstorm"); 雨水 (yǔ shuǐ, "rainwater"); 大雨 (dà yǔ, "heavy rain"); 雨果 (yǔ guǒ, "Hugo (name)"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 雨 (yǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yǔ: 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 雨 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 雨 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 雨 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.