How to Write 佃 (diàn) — Meaning “to rent land; tenant farming”

Imagine a tenant farmer (亻) standing beside a rented field (田). The person has to pay rent, so think of "person + field = rent farming" as a visual story.

Write the left radical 亻 first, with a short left-falling stroke and a vertical line. Then write 田 on the right — its top horizontal line should align with the middle of 亻, not too high or low. A common mistake is making 田 too wide; keep it similar in width to the person radical.

佃 means "tenant farmer" and always involves land (田). 仔 (zǐ) means "young" or "son" and uses 子, while 仕 (shì) means "official" or "serve" and uses 士. Visually, the right side of 佃 is 田 (field), 仔 has 子 (child), and 仕 has 士 (scholar).

佃 appears mainly in historical or legal contexts about land tenancy, like 佃农 (tenant farmer) or 佃户 (tenant household). It is not common in everyday speech, but you may see it in discussions of rural economics or traditional Chinese agrarian history.

Common words containing 佃 include: 佃农 (diàn nóng) — tenant farmer; 佃户 (diàn hù) — tenant farmer; household; 租佃 (zū diàn) — tenancy; to rent out land.