伏 (fú) · to lie prostrate, to crouch, to hide in ambush

Meanings

1 to lie prostrate
2 to crouch
3 to hide in ambush
4 volt (unit)

Characters

伏

fú

to lie prostrate; to crouch

Examples

HSK 6

士兵们伏在地上。

Shìbīng men fú zài dìshàng.

The soldiers lay prostrate on the ground.

HSK 7-9

猫伏在草丛里等老鼠。

Māo fú zài cǎocóng lǐ děng lǎoshǔ.

The cat crouched in the grass waiting for the mouse.

Tips

usage

伏 appears in many compounds: 埋伏 (ambush), 起伏 (rise and fall), 伏笔 (foreshadowing in writing).

memory

The character shows a person (亻) and a dog (犬) - picture a person crouching low like a dog.

Components

radical

亻 rén

person (radical form of 人)

Left person radical (side-form of 人) - anchors 伏 as a posture. The original picture was a person crouched beside a dog, lying low together for ambush. From there came the senses to submit and to subside (伏天 the dog days of summer). Same person family: 你, 他, 件, 但.

semantic

犬 quǎn

dog

Right 犬 - the dog graph in its full upright form (different from the side-radical 犭). The dog crouches beside its master, watching while the human lies low. This two-figure tableau is what gives 伏 its core sense of lying in wait. Full 犬 appears because the dog stands beside, not behind, the person.