赢 (yíng): to win; to beat

Meanings

1 to win; to beat
2 to gain; to profit

Characters

One of the most complex common characters (17 strokes), containing 亡, 口, 月, 贝, and 凡 - the 贝 (shell/money) component hints at winning wealth.

Examples

HSK 1

我们赢了！

Wǒmen yíng le!

We won!

HSK 3

这次比赛谁赢了？

Zhècì bǐsài shéi yíng le?

Who won the competition this time?

HSK 3

他总是赢我。

Tā zǒngshì yíng wǒ.

He always beats me.

Tips

usage

赢 (to win, colloquial) vs 胜 (to win, formal). In everyday speech, use 赢: 我赢了! In written/formal contexts: 中国队以3比2胜出.

Components

radical

贝 bèi

shell; cowrie; money

Middle-right indexing radical 贝 (cowrie/money). Cowrie shells were ancient currency. Provides the core anchor: 赢 means winning money, gain, profit. Fourth merchant virtue: capital. Same radical groups all wealth/transaction characters: 财 (riches), 买 (buy), 卖 (sell), 货 (goods).

semantic

亡 wáng

to lose; perish

Top 亡 (perish, lose) - paradoxically the top of 'win' has the meaning 'lose'. The folk reading: to win you must be willing to risk losing. This is the first of the famous 'five virtues of a merchant' attributed to 赢 (亡口月贝凡): risk-taking. Same character in 忘 (forget) and 忙 (busy).

semantic

口 kǒu

mouth

Upper-middle 口 (mouth) - the bargaining, persuading mouth of the trader. Second of the merchant's five virtues: eloquence. The folk-mnemonic stack 亡-口-月-贝-凡 reads cleanly down through the character and is by far the easiest way to retain this complex shape.

semantic

月 yuè

moon; month

Middle-left 月 - read as 'moon = month = time'. Third merchant virtue: timing, knowing when to buy and sell. (Strict etymology says this stroke-cluster derives from 肉 'flesh' or a stylised compression rather than the moon, but the folk reading is what makes the character memorable.)

phonetic

凡 fán

ordinary; all

Bottom-right 凡 - supplies a partial sound historically. Fifth merchant virtue: a level head, the ordinary discipline of routine. The five-virtue analysis (亡口月贝凡) is folk etymology, not strict philology, but it is the standard mnemonic and the cleanest way to learn this 17-stroke character.