How to Write 蚵 (hé) — Meaning “Oyster”

Imagine a small oyster (虫) opening its shell and saying "hé" (like the sound of 可). Or picture an oyster with a worm inside that reads the word "可" on its shell. This connects the creature image with the pronunciation.

Write the left radical 虫 first: vertical stroke, horizontal hook, horizontal, vertical, lift, dot. Then write 可: horizontal, vertical, horizontal hook, horizontal, vertical hook. A common mistake is making the last stroke of 虫 a horizontal line instead of a dot, or forgetting the lift stroke in the radical.

蚵 (hé) means oyster and uses 可 on the right. 虹 (hóng) means rainbow and uses 工 (gōng). 虺 (huǐ) means a mythical snake and uses 兀 (wù). All share the radical 虫, but their right parts and meanings are completely different, so pay attention to the right side.

蚵 is most common in Taiwanese and Fujian cuisine, especially in the dish 蚵仔煎 (oyster omelet). In standard Mandarin, people usually say 牡蛎 (mǔlì) for oyster, so 蚵 appears mainly in regional or food contexts. It is not part of the HSK vocabulary and is seldom used in formal writing.

Common words containing 蚵 include: 蚵仔煎 (hé zǎi jiān) — Oyster omelet; 蚵仔 (hé zǎi) — Small oyster; 蚵壳 (hé ké) — Oyster shell.