赢 (yíng): to win; to beat

Meanings

1 to win; to beat
2 to gain; to profit

Characters

One of the most complex common characters (17 strokes), containing 亡, 口, 月, 贝, and 凡 — the 贝 (shell/money) component hints at winning wealth.

Examples

我们赢了！

Wǒmen yíng le!

We won!

这次比赛谁赢了？

Zhècì bǐsài shéi yíng le?

Who won the competition this time?

他总是赢我。

Tā zǒngshì yíng wǒ.

He always beats me.

Tips

usage

赢 (to win, colloquial) vs 胜 (to win, formal). In everyday speech, use 赢: 我赢了! In written/formal contexts: 中国队以3比2胜出.

Components

radical

贝 bèi

shell; cowrie; money

Middle-right indexing radical 贝 (cowrie/money). Cowrie shells were ancient currency. Provides the core anchor: 赢 means winning money, gain, profit. Fourth merchant virtue: capital. Same radical groups all wealth/transaction characters: 财 (riches), 买 (buy), 卖 (sell), 货 (goods).

semantic

亡 wáng

to lose; perish

Top 亡 (perish, lose) — paradoxically the top of 'win' has the meaning 'lose'. The folk reading: to win you must be willing to risk losing. This is the first of the famous 'five virtues of a merchant' attributed to 赢 (亡口月贝凡): risk-taking. Same character in 忘 (forget) and 忙 (busy).

semantic

口 kǒu

mouth

Upper-middle 口 (mouth) — the bargaining, persuading mouth of the trader. Second of the merchant's five virtues: eloquence. The folk-mnemonic stack 亡-口-月-贝-凡 reads cleanly down through the character and is by far the easiest way to retain this complex shape.

semantic

月 yuè

moon; month

Middle-left 月 — read as 'moon = month = time'. Third merchant virtue: timing, knowing when to buy and sell. (Strict etymology says this stroke-cluster derives from 肉 'flesh' or a stylised compression rather than the moon, but the folk reading is what makes the character memorable.)

phonetic

凡 fán

ordinary; all

Bottom-right 凡 — supplies a partial sound historically. Fifth merchant virtue: a level head, the ordinary discipline of routine. The five-virtue analysis (亡口月贝凡) is folk etymology, not strict philology, but it is the standard mnemonic and the cleanest way to learn this 17-stroke character.