(): (of time or place) in, at, on, (indicating any indirect relation) to, toward, vis-à-vis, with regard to, for, (indicating a source) from, out of

() is a Chinese character meaning “(of time or place) in.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #40 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (of time or place) in
  2. at
  3. on
  4. (indicating any indirect relation) to
  5. toward
  6. vis-à-vis
  7. with regard to
  8. for
  9. (indicating a source) from
  10. out of

Stroke Order

1
2
3

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
prepositionguān yúpertaining to3
prepositionduì yúregarding4
adverbzhōng yúat last3
verbshǔ yúto be classified as5
conjunctionyú shìthereupon4
preposition/conjunctionyóu yúdue to4
verbzài yúto rest with5
verbchǔ yúto be in (some state, position, or condition)5
verbchū yúdue to6
verb/prepositionzhì yúas for6
verbděng yúto equal5
adverbguò yúexcessively5
verbyòng yúto use in4
verbwèi yúto be located at5
verbshàn yúto be good at5
verbbù zhì yúunlikely to go so far as to6
verbyǒu zhù yúto contribute to5
verblè yúwilling (to do sth)6
verbdī yúto be lower than4
verbxiàn yúto be limited to6
verbyuán yúhas its origins in6
gāo yúgreater than4
verbgǎn yúto have the courage to do sth5
verbdà yúgreater than5
verbyǒng yúto dare to6
便verbbiàn yúeasy to4
verbxiǎo yúless than, <5
verbyì yúvery likely6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
qǔ jué yúto hinge on
jī yúbecause of
jiàn yúin view of
yǐ zhì yúdown to
zhì yúto place in
zhōng yúto be loyal to
máng yúbusy with
lái yuán yúto originate in
100
Total compounds
11
As first character
84
As last character
5
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 11 as the first character, 84 as the last, and 5 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

wèi
0.6181,743,240 co-occurrences
shǔ
0.597642,667 co-occurrences
0.535143,562 co-occurrences
0.51691,212 co-occurrences
guān
0.516400,886 co-occurrences
0.496196,320 co-occurrences
yóu
0.493828,175 co-occurrences
duì
0.460372,744 co-occurrences
shì
0.44052,752 co-occurrences
yòng
0.428576,858 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (31)

ānyúxiànzhuàngHSK 5+

to be content with the status quo (and unwilling to progress); to take things as they are

phrase
dìngyúyīzūnHSK 4+

to regard the supreme authority as the only standard

phrase
fù yú xiǎng xiàngHSK 4+

imaginative

phrase
怀gěnggěngyúhuáiHSK 7+

to brood on; to not forget about a matter and always be troubled or vexed by it

phrase
gōngzhūyúshìHSK 6+

to make something known to the world; to make something public

phrase
gōngguòyúqiúHSK 4+

to have an oversupply; the supply exceeds the demand

phrase
huǐyúyīdànHSK 7+

to be ruined all at once

phrase
jíyúqiúchéngHSK 3+

to be too eager for success or accomplishments

phrase
jiàhuòyúrénHSK 6+

to shift the blame on others; to pass the buck

phrase
lǎoyúshìgùHSK 3+

sophisticated and experienced

adjective
liáoshèngyúwúHSK 5+

Something is better than nothing; A little is better than nothing.

proverb
nù xíng yú sèHSK 6+

to betray anger (idiom); fury written across one's face

phrase

Showing 12 of 31 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他终完成了这部小说,历时三年。

Tā zhōngyú wánchéng le zhè bù xiǎoshuō, lìshí sān nián.

He finally completed this novel, which took three years.

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

阿曼外交大臣:美伊下一轮谈判将26日在日内瓦举行

ā 曼 wài jiāo dà chén : měi yī xià yī lún tán pàn jiāng yú 2 6 rì zài rì nèi wǎ jǔ háng

Oman Foreign Minister: The next round of negotiations between the United States and Iran will be held in Geneva on the 26th

WorldjournalFeb 2026

冬奥/新华社:谷爱凌,终等到妳

dōng ào xīn huá shè : gǔ ài líng , zhōng yú děng dào 妳

Winter Olympics/Xinhua News Agency: Gu Ailing, finally waiting for you

今天的經理人Feb 2026

羡慕善社交的同事,总是想改变自己?你只是没看见...

xiàn mù shàn yú shè jiāo de tóng shì , zǒng shì xiǎng gǎi biàn zì jǐ ? nǐ zhī shì méi kàn jiàn . . .

Envy your sociable colleagues and always want to change yourself? You just don't see...

百度新闻Feb 2026

首驱科技惊喜登场春晚,致力诠释“智能出行”时代的..

shǒu qū kē jì jīng xǐ dēng chǎng chūn wǎn , zhì lì yú 诠 shì zhì néng chū háng shí dài de . .

First drive technology surprise appearance in the Spring Festival Gala, is committed to interpreting the "intelligent mobility" era of...

百度新闻Feb 2026

...拟出售部分闪迪股份 筹资31.7亿美元用..

. . . nǐ chū shòu bù fēn shǎn dí gǔ fèn chóu zī . yì měi yuán yòng yú . .

... Proposed sale of some SanDisk shares to raise $3.17 billion for...

Tatoeba

你对现在的年轻人有什么看法?

Nǐ duìyú xiànzài de niánqīngrén yǒu shénme kànfǎ?

What do you think about young people today?

Tatoeba

那件事你之前怎么想的?

Guānyú nà jiàn shì nǐ zhīqián zěnme xiǎng de?

How did you feel about that?

Tatoeba

你忠我还是国王?

Nǐ zhōngyú wǒ háishi guówáng?

To whom are you loyal: me or the king?

Tatoeba

你能告诉我一点关汤姆的事吗?

Nǐ néng gàosu wǒ yīdiǎn guānyú Tāngmǔ de shì ma?

Would you please tell me a little about Tom?

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the two radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 于 (yú) mean in Chinese?
于 (yú) primarily means "(of time or place) in." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #40 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 于 have?
于 is written with 3 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 于?
The radical associated with 于 is 二 (two). This radical appears in many characters related to two.
What are the components of 于?
于 is composed of: 二 (structural), 亅 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿻二亅 with a overlay layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 于?
Common words with 于 include: 关于 (guān yú, "pertaining to"); 对于 (duì yú, "regarding"); 终于 (zhōng yú, "at last"); 属于 (shǔ yú, "to be classified as"); 于是 (yú shì, "thereupon"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 于 (yú)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yú: 余 ((literary) I), 鱼 (fish), 与 (and), 羽 (feather), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 于 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 于 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.