沿

yán
preposition HSK 6 #8,078

Meanings

  1. 1 along; to follow (a path, river, etc.)
  2. 2 to trace; to follow the course of

Examples

HSK 2
Yán zhè tiáo lù yīzhí zǒu.
Go straight along this road.
HSK 3
Wǒmen yánzhe hǎibiān sànbù.
We walked along the seaside.
HSK 7-9
Yánhé liǎng'àn zhòng mǎn le liǔshù.
Willow trees were planted along both banks of the river.

Tips

usage
沿 is often followed by to form 沿着, which is more common in spoken Chinese. 沿 alone is more literary/formal.
memory
The water radical hints at following the course of a river - the original meaning was to follow a waterway.

Components

radical
shuǐ
water (radical form of 水)
Three-drops water radical on the left - the side-form of . It indexes 沿 in the water family with river, sea, to flow. The original sense was tracking a watercourse downstream, which is why 沿 came to mean 'along' for any path that follows a line.
phonetic
small table; how many (here graphic)
Upper-right top acts as the phonetic top of the right half. Sitting over , it forms an old graph (yǎn) - 'water flowing from a marsh' - which gave 沿 its yán reading. Treat it as a sound clue rather than 'small table' here.
semantic
kǒu
mouth; opening
The mouth-shape underneath completes the old graph, originally picturing the mouth of a stream where water spills out. Stacked with above, it reinforces the image of following a watercourse from its outlet - the core scene behind 'to go along'.

Stroke Order

沿 yán