跌 (diē) · to fall; to tumble

Meanings

1 to fall; to tumble
2 to drop; to decline (prices, stocks)

Characters

跌

diē

to fall; to drop

Examples

HSK 3

他从楼梯上跌了下来。

Tā cóng lóutī shàng diē le xiàlái.

He fell down the stairs.

HSK 4

小心别跌倒了。

Xiǎoxīn bié diēdǎo le.

Be careful not to fall.

HSK 6

股票跌了百分之十。

Gǔpiào diē le bǎi fēn zhī shí.

The stock dropped by ten percent.

Tips

usage

跌 vs 摔: Both mean 'to fall,' but 跌 is more commonly used for prices/stocks dropping. 摔 emphasizes a hard fall or breaking something.

memory

足 (foot) radical on the left - your foot slips and you fall.

Components

radical

足 zú

foot

Left foot radical, the indexing component (Kangxi 157). Pictures a leg with a foot at the bottom. Marks 跌 as a foot-action character: stumbling, tripping, falling are all things feet do. Same radical anchors 跑 (run), 跳 (jump), 路 (road), 踢 (kick).

phonetic

失 shī

to lose; to miss

Right-side 失 supplies the sound: shī shifts to diē, an unusually large drift through the dental-stop series. Beyond sound, 失 carries a faint semantic flavour - losing your footing leads to a fall, so the phonetic also hints at the action. Same idea anchors 跌 in the 'lose-and-fall' family.