fáng
noun #1,203

Meanings

  1. 1 house; room
  2. 2 branch (of family)

Examples

Nǐ de fángjiān zhēn gānjìng.
Your room is really clean.
Fángzi hěn guì.
Houses are very expensive.
Chúfáng zài nǎlǐ?
Where is the kitchen?

Tips

usage
is very common: 房间 (room), 房子 (house), 厨房 (kitchen), 房东 (landlord), 房租 (rent), 买房 (to buy a house — a major life goal in Chinese culture). Compare with (physical structure).

Components

radical
single-leaf door; household
Upper-left depicts a single-leaf door (half of ). It is the indexing radical and supplies the meaning — a is a room or building you enter through a door. Many household and dwelling chars share this radical: (door panel), (place), (open up).
phonetic
fāng
square; direction
Bottom-right supplies the sound (fāng → fáng, tone shift only). originally pictured a plough, later abstracted to 'square / direction'. The square shape harmonises faintly with the rectangular floor-plan of a room, but the active role here is phonetic. Same phonetic surfaces in , 访.

Stroke Order

fáng