伏 (fú): to lie prostrate

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

士兵们伏在地上。

Shìbīng men fú zài dìshàng.

The soldiers lay prostrate on the ground.

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.