落 (là) · to leave behind; to forget to bring

Meanings

1 to leave behind; to forget to bring
2 to be missing; to omit
3 to lag behind; to fall behind (a group)

Characters

落

là

to leave behind; to forget to bring

Examples

HSK 2

他走得太快，我们都落下了。

Tā zǒu de tài kuài, wǒmen dōu là xià le.

He walked too fast - we all got left behind.

HSK 3

我把钱包落在出租车上了。

Wǒ bǎ qiánbāo là zài chūzūchē shàng le.

I left my wallet in the taxi.

HSK 6

你抄的时候落了一个字。

Nǐ chāo de shíhou là le yī gè zì.

You missed a character when you were copying it down.

Tips

mistakes

Don't confuse 落 (leave behind / be missing) with 落 (to fall / drop). The là reading is for forgetting an object somewhere (把书落在家里 - left the book at home), for an omission, or for being literally left behind by a group. If the meaning is physical descent or settling, switch to luò.

memory

Hear 落 and picture the flat exclamation of a kid who suddenly remembers: 'la! I forgot my homework!' The short, sharp à matches the moment of realisation that something has been left behind - exactly the sense this reading carries.

Components

radical

艹 cǎo

grass

Top grass radical, the compressed form of 草. The original sense of 落 was leaves dropping off plants - 艹 anchors that 'falling vegetation' image. Today the meaning has generalised to anything dropping (rain in 落雨, tears in 落泪, a failed exam in 落榜) but the radical still files the character under flora.

phonetic

洛 luò

Luo (river name)

Bottom 洛 supplies the sound (luò → luò, identical). 洛 is itself a phono-semantic compound (氵 water + 各 phonetic) and is best known as the Luo River - 洛阳. In 落 it functions purely as a sound stack underneath the grass radical, making this a textbook phono-semantic build.