How to Write 活 (huó) — Meaning “live / alive / work”

Imagine a thirsty tongue (舌) needing water (氵) to stay alive—this combines the two parts to mean "live." You can also think of a person drinking water with their tongue to keep working (干活).

The left radical 氵 should be narrow and written first: dot, dot, lift. The right part 舌 has six strokes starting with a left-falling stroke, and its vertical line must be straight—a common mistake is making it crooked or too wide.

活 contains 舌 (tongue) on the right, while 㳄 has 欠 (yawn) and 汧 has 千 (thousand). Also, 活 is common and means "live" or "work," but 㳄 is a rare character for "saliva" and 汧 is an old river name.

活 is used in everyday words like 生活 (life), 活动 (activity), and 干活 (to work). A cultural phrase is 活到老，学到老 (live until old, learn until old), showing a positive attitude toward lifelong learning.

Common words containing 活 include: 生活 (shēng huó) — life; to live; 活动 (huó dòng) — activity / exercise; 干活 (gàn huó) — to work / to do manual labor.