偷

tōu
verb HSK 6 #597

Meanings

  1. 1 to steal
  2. 2 to pilfer
  3. 3 stealthily; secretly

Examples

HSK 1
Yǒurén tōu le wǒ de shǒujī.
Someone stole my phone.
HSK 5
Xiǎo māo tōuchī le zhuōshàng de yú.
The kitten secretly ate the fish on the table.
HSK 5
Tā tōutōu de kàn le tā yìyǎn.
He stealthily glanced at her.

Tips

usage
偷 can be "to steal" (偷东西) or "secretly" as an adverb (偷看 = to peek, 偷听 = to eavesdrop, 偷笑 = to laugh secretly).
culture
偷鸡不成蚀把米 - "Failed to steal a chicken and lost the rice used as bait." Means a scheme that backfires.

Components

radical
亻 rén
person (left-side radical form of 人)
Left 亻 is the person radical, the standing side-form of 人 - a slim two-stroke human leaning into the right side. Anchors 偷 as a human social act: stealing is something people do to each other. The radical also threads through 仁 benevolent and 信 trust, giving 偷 a faintly ironic placement in the family of moral-conduct chars.
phonetic
俞 yú
yes; assent; transport (here phonetic)
Right 俞 supplies the sound - yú shifting to tōu through significant Old Chinese drift. The 俞-phonetic series shows wide variation: 输 shū transport, 愉 yú happy, 谕 yù to instruct, 喻 yù metaphor - all share the same right-side. Pure phonetic role; 俞's classical "agree, transport" meanings don't contribute to "steal".

Stroke Order

偷 tōu