影

yǐng
noun #2,756

Meanings

  1. 1 shadow; image
  2. 2 film; photograph

Examples

HSK 1
Wǒmen qù kàn diànyǐng ba.
Let's go watch a movie.
HSK 3
Tā de yǐngxiǎng hěn dà.
His influence is very big.
HSK 4
Pāi yī zhāng zhàopiàn liú gè yǐng.
Take a photo as a souvenir.

Tips

usage
影 is essential for media: 电影 (movie), 影响 (influence), 摄影 (photography), 影子 (shadow), 影院 (cinema). From shadow → image → film - a natural meaning evolution.

Components

radical
彡 shān
tuft of hair; short streaks
Right indexing radical 彡 (Kangxi #59) - three slanted streaks. Originally a tuft of hair, but pedagogically used for any pattern of fine lines or marks: the streaks of light or shadow. Same radical in 形 (shape), 彩 (colour), 须 (whiskers), 彬 (refined). Here the three strokes literally render the lines of a cast shadow.
phonetic
景 jǐng
scenery; bright view
Left component supplies the sound (jǐng → yǐng, a soft initial drift) and a strong semantic flavour: 景 means 'sun + capital' = a bright lit scene, exactly the kind of thing that casts a shadow. So 影 is etymologically 'the trace of a brightly lit view'. The 景-family also includes 憬 (yearn), but the sound link here is by far the clearest.

Stroke Order

影 yǐng