How to Write 丢 (diū) — Meaning “to lose; to throw”

Think of 丢 as a person throwing a ball: the top horizontal line is the arm, and the 去 part is the ball flying away. Another mnemonic: 'One (一) thing goes (去) missing — you lose it!'

Stroke order: first the top horizontal, then the vertical and second horizontal of 土, then a left-falling stroke, then a horizontal, and finally a dot at the bottom. A common mistake is writing the bottom part as 云 instead of 厶 — make sure the last two strokes are a horizontal and a dot, not a curved stroke.

不 (bù, 'not') looks completely different: it has no bottom 去 structure and is used as a negation adverb, not a verb. 丏 (miǎn) is a rare character meaning 'to cover' or 'to hide'; it also has a top horizontal but its lower part resembles 丐, not 去. 丢 is the only one you need for everyday words like 丢了 and 丢脸.

丢 is a verb used to mean 'to lose' (e.g., 丢了钥匙 'lost the keys') or 'to throw away' (e.g., 丢掉垃圾 'throw away the trash'). A key cultural phrase is 丢脸 (lose face), which describes being embarrassed or disgraced in social situations, reflecting the importance of 'face' in Chinese culture.

Common words containing 丢 include: 丢了 (diū le) — lost; 丢脸 (diū liǎn) — to lose face; to be disgraced; 丢掉 (diū diào) — to throw away; to lose.