The Father Radical 父: Overview, Mnemonics and Vocabulary

Welcome back to our weekly radical series!

In today’s article, we introduce you to the father radical 父 in Chinese, its stroke orders, and how you can memorize it with our mnemonics flashcard example.

What is the father radical?

In Chinese, the radical for father is pronounced as “fù” and written as 父. This radical is composed of 4 strokes and is listed as radical 88 according to the Kangxi radical chart (a system of radicals of Chinese characters). 

According to the Kangxi Dictionary, only 10 characters (out of 49,030) are found under this radical. The number of characters found under father radical 父 is quite low compared to other characters under other radicals. For example, there are estimated that 580 characters have been found under the radical foot 足. 

Some Chinese learners wonder why the radical 父 doesn’t evoke the image of a man, let alone a father. It’s because this radical was originally an ideographic describing a hand 乂 holding an axe 八 which exemplifies the image of a man chopping wood. In ancient times, a father, the head of the family, was responsible for doing such jobs as hunting and chopping wood. 

You might also be interested in:

• 214 Must-Know Chinese Radicals for Every Learner
• 3 Things You Wish You Knew about Hanzi
• The Foot Radical 足: Overview, Mnemonics and Vocabulary

What is the stroke order of the radical 父?

The father radical has four strokes, written in the following order:

You might also be interested in: 

• A General Guide To Chinese Character Stroke Order 
• Tutorial video: How to write the father radical 父

How can you memorize the father radical?

Pandanese can help you.

At Pandanese, we employ mnemonics flashcards and  Spaced Repetition System (SRS) to help Chinese learners like you get the most out of your learning. Your Chinese learning journey couldn’t get any easier! Or could it? Have a look at how mnemonics works in this example. 

Father radical vocabulary list for you!

If you see Chinese characters and words with the 父 radical, they will likely have father-related meanings. 

Want to know more about father-related terms? Find characters containing the father radical in the table below:

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