修 (xiū) · to repair, to build, to study

Meanings

1 to repair
2 to build
3 to study

Characters

修

xiū

to repair; to build; to study

Contains the person radical 亻, suggesting human effort in repairing or cultivating.

Examples

HSK 2

他们正在修一条新路。

Tāmen zhèngzài xiū yìtiáo xīn lù.

They are building a new road.

HSK 3

我的手机坏了，需要修一下。

Wǒ de shǒujī huài le, xūyào xiū yíxià.

My phone is broken; it needs to be repaired.

HSK 3

她在大学修了历史课。

Tā zài dàxué xiū le lìshǐkè.

She took a history course in college.

Tips

usage

修 has three main meanings: to repair (修车, fix a car), to build/construct (修路, build a road), and to study/cultivate (修课, take a course; 修行, practice cultivation).

Components

radical

亻 rén

person (radical form of 人)

Left-side person radical - the indexing radical. Marks 修 as a human-effort verb: repairing, building, cultivating, studying - all require deliberate work. Same family: 作 (make), 修 itself, 仪 (manners), 们 (plural marker).

phonetic

攸 yōu

calm flow; swift; remote

Upper-right portion - the inner strokes of 攸 (a vertical 丨 plus the 攵 hand-with-stick on the right), with the leftmost 亻 of standalone 攸 absorbed into the parent's own 亻 radical. Supplies the sound, with yōu shifting to xiū in 修 (a known palatal/sibilant alternation). Same phonetic series: 條 (slip/strip, simplified 条).

semantic

彡 shān

fine hair; ornamental pattern

Bottom-right three diagonal strokes - pictures fine ornament, polish, careful finishing. Adds the "refining" sense to 修: not blunt repair but careful cultivation. This is why 修 covers self-improvement (修身), spiritual practice (修行), and academic study (修课), not just mechanical fixing.