How to Write 很 (hěn) — Meaning “very”

Imagine a person (represented by the left radical 彳) walking very slowly and saying 'Hěn... hěn...' because they are very tired. The right side 艮 looks like a backwards 'hen' – think of a hen that is very loud. This connects the sound and meaning.

Start with the left radical 彳: first a left-falling stroke, then a short vertical, then a short upward stroke. The right part 艮 has six strokes: horizontal, vertical, horizontal, vertical, horizontal, and a right-falling stroke. Common mistakes include making the left radical too big or uneven, and writing the right part's last stroke as a left-falling instead of right-falling.

很 has the right part 艮, while 彷 has 方 (square) on the right, and 彸 has 中 (middle). 很 means 'very' and is extremely common, 彷 is used in words like 彷徨 (to hesitate), and 彸 is very rare and means 'restless'. Visually, the right sides are distinct, so focus on the shape of 艮 (with its short horizontal strokes) to avoid confusion.

很 is placed before adjectives to mean 'very', as in 很好 (very good) or 很多 (a lot). In Chinese, 很 is often used even when the meaning is not strongly emphatic – for example, 我很好 simply means 'I am fine'. This is because adjectives usually need a degree word like 很 to complete a sentence, making it a key character for basic communication.

Common words containing 很 include: 很好 (hěn hǎo) — Very good; 很多 (hěn duō) — many; a lot; 很快 (hěn kuài) — Very fast.