童

tóng
noun #4,220

Meanings

  1. 1 child
  2. 2 boy

Examples

HSK 2
Értóng xǐhuan tīng tónghuà.
Children love listening to fairy tales.
HSK 2
Tā de tóngnián fēicháng kuàilè.
Her childhood was very happy.
HSK 4
Zhè shì yī fú értóng huà.
This is a kid's drawing.

Tips

memory
立 (stand) + 里 (village) - a child standing in the village.

Components

radical
立 lì
to stand
Top indexing standing radical - depicts a person standing upright. Historically the top of 童 derived from a tattoo-knife graph marking a slave or servant, reflecting the ancient meaning 'young male slave'. The standing posture later read as 'a child standing tall', which is the everyday mnemonic. Modern feeling: a small upright figure - a child.
phonetic
里 lǐ
village; inside (here phonetic remnant)
Bottom 里 - historically a remnant of 重 (heavy / repeat), serving as the phonetic in the original 童 (whose ancient pronunciation was closer to dòng). The connection to the modern reading tóng is opaque. Common mnemonic: a child (above) standing in the village (里 below). Same village element appears in 重 and 量.

Stroke Order

童 tóng