How to Write 洱 (ěr) — Meaning “Er (used in Erhai Lake)”

Picture an ear (耳) floating on water (氵) — this helps you remember 洱 sounds like "ear" and refers to a lake. Another trick: think of Pu'er tea, which has 洱 in its name, as a round tea cake that looks a bit like an ear.

When writing the left radical 氵, place the first dot high, the second dot slightly lower and to the left, and the third dot even lower. The right part 耳 begins with a horizontal stroke at the top, then a long vertical stroke down, followed by two short inner horizontals and a longer bottom horizontal. Keep the right side narrow so the character stays balanced.

洱 has the right component 耳 (ear), while 㳄 (xián or yán) has a right part that looks like a person with an open mouth, meaning drool. 汧 (qiān) has a right part 幵 (two parallel vertical lines) and is an old river name. In usage, 洱 appears only in specific place names and tea names, not as a general word like 㳄 or 汧.

洱 is almost always used in the proper nouns 洱海 (Erhai Lake, a famous lake in Yunnan) and 普洱茶 (Pu'er tea, a well-known fermented tea from the same region). It also appears in the city name 普洱 (Pu'er). This character does not function as an independent word in everyday Chinese, so it is only encountered in these specific contexts.

Common words containing 洱 include: 普洱茶 (pǔ ěr chá) — Pu'er tea; 洱海 (ěr hǎi) — Erhai Lake; 普洱 (pǔ ěr) — Pu'er (city or tea).