渔 (yú) · to fish, to engage in fishing

Meanings

1 to fish
2 to engage in fishing
3 to seek (gain) by unfair means

Characters

渔

yú

to fish; fishing

Examples

HSK 4

他从小就跟父亲一起渔。

Tā cóngxiǎo jiù gēn fùqīn yìqǐ yú.

He has been fishing with his father since childhood.

HSK 7-9

不劳而获，趁火打劫，渔人之利。

Bùláo'érhuò, chènhuǒ-dǎjié, yú rén zhī lì.

Reaping without sowing, looting during a fire - profiting at others' expense.

Tips

usage

渔 on its own is a somewhat formal or literary verb for fishing. In everyday speech, 钓鱼 (diàoyú, to fish with a rod) or 捕鱼 (bǔyú, to catch fish) are more common. 渔 also appears in compounds like 渔民 (fisherman), 渔船 (fishing boat), 渔业 (fishing industry).

Components

radical

氵 shuǐ

water (radical form of 水)

Three-drops water radical on the left - side-form of 水. Fishing happens in water, so this is the natural anchor. 渔 is built on top of 鱼 (fish) by adding water, turning the noun 'fish' into the verb 'to fish.' Same family: 河, 海, 湖, 江.

phonetic

鱼 yú

fish

Right 鱼 - pictograph of a fish (head on top, body and tail compressed). Supplies the sound yú with no shift, and carries the semantic load: the thing you catch. A perfect phono-semantic compound where phonetic doubles as meaning: water + fish = to catch fish.