氢 (qīng): hydrogen

Meanings

1 hydrogen

Characters

氢

qīng

hydrogen

Examples

水是由氢和氧组成的。

Shuǐ shì yóu qīng hé yǎng zǔchéng de.

Water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen.

氢气是最轻的气体。

Qīngqì shì zuì qīng de qìtǐ.

Hydrogen gas is the lightest gas.

Tips

memory

Gas radical (气) + 轻 (light) phonetic = the lightest gas element. Chinese chemistry characters often encode properties: 氧 (life-giving gas = oxygen), 氮 (dilute gas = nitrogen).

Components

radical

气 qì

gas; air; breath

Outer wrap-around 气 — pictograph of rising vapour. The indexing radical, used for every gaseous chemical element in modern Chinese chemistry: 氧 oxygen, 氮 nitrogen, 氯 chlorine, 氦 helium. Wraps around the inside from the top and right, leaving an open lower-left corner for the phonetic to sit in.

semantic

又 yòu

right hand (here a graphic top stroke)

Upper of the two strokes tucked inside 气 — a small 又-shaped stroke on top of 工. Simplifiers compressed the original 巠 phonetic into this minimal 又+工 stack to keep the character lean. Read as a graphic placeholder topping the phonetic; carries no independent meaning.

phonetic

工 gōng

work; craft (phonetic)

Lower-inside 工 — supplies a phonetic loosely connected to qīng through the historical reading of 巠 (the original full phonetic now compressed away). 工 pictures a carpenter's square. Same coinage pattern as 氧 with 羊, 氮 with 炎: a small inside-character chosen to point at the sound.