How to Write 鲋 (fù) — Meaning “Crucian carp”

Imagine a fish (鱼) that has a small coupon (付, like a price tag) attached to it — this fish is a crucian carp, which is often sold in markets. Alternatively, think of the sound 'fu' like 'food' and a fish you can eat.

When writing 鲋, keep the left 鱼 radical narrow and balanced, with the bottom horizontal stroke slightly raised. The right 付 part should be slightly wider; its first stroke (撇) should not cross into the left side. A common mistake is making the two sides uneven in height.

鲋 (crucian carp) has the 鱼 radical on the left and 付 on the right, while 鱿 (squid) uses 尤 on the right and 鲁 (a surname or 'rough') has 鱼 above 日. They look different in the right or bottom component, and their meanings are unrelated despite all having the 鱼 element.

鲋 is used mainly in biological or literary contexts to refer to the crucian carp, often in the word 鲋鱼 (fù yú). It appears in the classical idiom 涸辙之鲋 (a fish in a dry rut) to describe someone in a desperate situation, but in daily conversation, the character 鲫 (jì) is more common for crucian carp.

Common words containing 鲋 include: 鲋鱼 (fù yú) — Crucian carp; 小鲋 (xiǎo fù) — small crucian carp; 鲋子 (fù zi) — Crucian carp.