How to Write 亍 (chù) — Meaning “Step with the right foot.”

Picture the character as a person taking a step: the top horizontal line is the hip, the vertical line is the leg, and the left-falling stroke is the foot moving forward. You can also think of the sound "chù" like "choo" as in a train slowly moving—just as 彳亍 means to walk slowly.

Write the strokes in this order: first a horizontal line, then a vertical line crossing it, and finally a left-falling stroke starting from the intersection. A common mistake is writing the left-falling stroke as a right-falling stroke (nà) or making it too short—keep it slanted and about the same length as the vertical.

二 is just two horizontal lines and has no vertical stroke, while 亍 has a vertical and a left-falling stroke. 于 also has a vertical stroke, but it ends with a hook (亅) instead of a left-falling stroke, and 于 has two horizontal lines at the top, not one. Visually, 亍 looks like a T with a diagonal, whereas 于 looks like a T with a hook at the bottom.

亍 is very rare on its own and appears almost only in the literary word 彳亍 (chì chù), meaning to walk slowly or loiter. This word is poetic and not used in everyday speech. You may also see it in contexts like 亍字 (chù zì) when referring to the character itself.

Common words containing 亍 include: 彳亍 (chì chù) — to walk slowly; to loiter; 亍字 (chù zì) — The character '亍'.; 读亍 (dú chù) — Read '亍'.