How to Write 呱 (gū/guā) — Meaning “quack / sound of a frog or duck”

Picture a frog sitting on a melon (瓜) and opening its mouth (口) to make a loud "GUA!" sound. The melon reminds you of the right half, and the mouth reminds you of the left half, so you can easily recall 呱 means "quack" or the sound of a frog.

First write the left radical 口 as a small square, then write the right side 瓜: start with a left-falling stroke (撇), then another left-falling stroke (撇), then a vertical stroke (竖), then a horizontal lift (提), and finally a dot (点). A common mistake is making the 口 too big or writing the 瓜 strokes in the wrong order—remember to finish 瓜 with the dot at the end.

呱 has 瓜 (melon) on the right and means a frog or duck sound, while 吁 has 于 (yú) on the right and means a sigh or exclamation, pronounced xū or yù. 吂 has 亡 (wáng, death/disappear) on the right and is a rare character meaning "deaf" or "ignorant" — visually, the right side of each character is completely different, so check whether it's 瓜, 于, or 亡.

呱 is mainly used as an onomatopoeia for the sound of frogs or ducks, like in 呱呱叫 (guā guā jiào, "excellent") which literally means "crying guā guā" but is an idiom for "first-rate." Another common idiom is 呱呱坠地 (gū gū zhuì dì, "to be born"), describing a baby's first cry at birth.

Common words containing 呱 include: 呱呱叫 (guā guā jiào) — Excellent; first-rate; tip-top.; 呱呱坠地 (gū gū zhuì dì) — To be born; to come into the world with a cry.; 拉呱 (lā gū) — to chat; to gossip.