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How to write 泳 (yǒng, “swimming”)

泳 (yǒng), an HSK 2 character, means “swimming” and “to swim”. It is HSK 2 in the 2025 syllabus, down from level 3 in the 2021 standard. It pairs a meaning part, 氵 (“water”), with a sound part, 永 (“forever”). It is part of the HSK word 游泳 (“swimming”), and of 泳衣 (“swimsuit”) and 电泳 (“electrophoresis”). Japanese reads it oyo-gu, “swim”, as a JLPT N3 kanji.

Pinyin
yǒng
Strokes
8
HSK
2
Radical
氵 (“water”)

Stroke by stroke

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8

As a left-right character it splits into 氵 (“water”, the radical), strokes 1–3; 永 (“forever”), strokes 4–8, written the left part first.

  1. Dot ㇔top leftdown and right
  2. Dot ㇔top leftdown and right
  3. Rising stroke ㇀bottom leftupwards
  4. Dot ㇔topdown and right
  5. Horizontal-turn-hook ㇆toprightwards → downwards → leftwards
  6. Horizontal then left-falling ㇇leftrightwards → down and left
  7. Left-falling stroke ㇒top rightdown and right → down and left
  8. Right-falling stroke ㇏centerdown and right → rightwards

Names of the strokes

Japanese and Chinese

Japanese and Chinese draw all 8 strokes in the same order and direction, by our stroke-by-stroke comparison.

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Japanese · KanjiVG · 8 strokes
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Chinese · Make Me a Hanzi · 8 strokes

Where 泳 comes from

water

Meaning part
氵 (“water”)
Sound part
永 (“forever”)

Trace it

Follow the numbers. Tracing help

Pinyin and meaning

PinyinMeaningsTraditionalIn words
yǒng
third tone		swimming; to swim—游泳 泳衣 电泳 泳裤
HSK 2025 syllabus
level 2
2021 standard
level 3
HSK 2.0
in a level 2 word
Words with it
29 in CC-CEDICT

Words with 泳

WordPinyinMeaning
游泳yóuyǒngswimming; to swim HSK 2
泳衣yǒngyīswimsuit; bathing suit
电泳 電泳diànyǒngelectrophoresis
泳裤 泳褲yǒngkùswim trunks
游泳衣yóuyǒngyīswimsuit; bathing costume
游泳馆 游泳館yóuyǒngguǎnindoor swimming pool; natatorium
花样游泳 花樣游泳huāyàngyóuyǒngsynchronized swimming
爬泳páyǒng(swimming) the crawl (front crawl stroke)
泳将 泳將yǒngjiàngchampion swimmer; swimming star
泳帽yǒngmàoswimming cap

HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).

Practice sheet

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Keep going

HSK 2, in list order: