於 (yú) · in, at, to

Meanings

1 in
2 at
3 to
4 from
5 by

Characters

於

yú

in; at; to; from; by

Examples

HSK 4

他生於一九八〇年。

Tā shēng yú yī jiǔ bā líng nián.

He was born in 1980.

HSK 6

这座桥建於清朝。

Zhè zuò qiáo jiàn yú Qīngcháo.

This bridge was built during the Qing Dynasty.

Tips

usage

於 is the traditional form of 于. In modern simplified Chinese, 于 is standard. 於 is still commonly seen in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and classical texts.

Components

radical

方 fāng

square; direction

Left direction radical - the indexing radical. 方 originally pictured a plowshare; in 於 it grounds the preposition spatially, anchoring 'in, at, toward'. The direction radical also appears in 旅 (travel), 旁 (side), 施 (apply) - locational and orientational characters.

phonetic

仒 yú

stylised bird-tail (phonetic remnant)

Right four strokes - a phonetic remnant historically derived from 烏 (crow), which supplied the sound. 於 originated as an exclamation 'wū!' before being borrowed for the preposition reading yú. The right side is no longer a familiar standalone character; it persists only as a phonetic shell. Mnemonic: a stylised bird-tail trailing rightward off the 方 plough.