xià
verb HSK 1 #83

Meanings

  1. 1 down
  2. 2 below
  3. 3 under
  4. 4 next
  5. 5 to go down

Examples

HSK 1
Qǐng zuò xià.
Please sit down.
HSK 1
Xià gè yuè wǒ qù Zhōngguó.
I'm going to China next month.
HSK 1
Cóng shān shàng zǒu xiàlái.
Walk down from the mountain.

Tips

grammar
as a directional complement means downward or completion: (sit down), (put down), (write down).
usage
meaning 'next' pairs with time words: (next month), 下次 (next time), 下周 (next week).

Components

radical
one; horizontal line; reference
Top horizontal - the reference line, the 'ground' against which the lower mark is positioned. This is the indexing radical. The same line-as-reference logic appears in (mark above the line), (negation below the line), and the pair forms the most basic spatial-indicator system in Chinese.
ideograph
mark below; downward indicator
Below the reference line - a vertical with a small tick, an abstract downward-pointing mark (the shape happens to coincide with the divination character , but here it has no oracle meaning). The whole character is a pure ideograph: 'something positioned below', the mirror of .

Stroke Order

xià