How to Write 叚 (jiǎ) — Meaning “ancient form of the character '假' (fake/borrow)”

Picture a hand (又) sneaking under a roof (left shape) to grab something that doesn't belong to it — that's a 'fake' or 'borrow' scenario. The roof shape on the left looks like a small house, and the hand is taking something, so remember 'hand under roof equals fake.'

The left part has no dot like 尸 — it consists of a top horizontal, then a left-falling stroke, followed by a middle horizontal, a vertical line through the middle, and a bottom horizontal. The right side 又 is written with a left-falling stroke then a right-falling stroke; common mistakes include adding an extra dot or misaligning the vertical stroke.

叚 has a unique left shape (a rectangle with a vertical line) while 叔 uses a different left component that looks like 尗 (with a vertical and two horizontals). 叕 consists of four 又 arranged in a square pattern, whereas 叚 has only one 又 on the right.

叚 is an ancient form of 假 (fake/borrow) and is rarely used in modern Chinese except in classical texts, calligraphy, or historical writing. It is not part of the HSK vocabulary, so learners should focus on the modern character 假 for everyday use.

Common words containing 叚 include: 叚 (jiǎ) — ancient form of the character '假' (fake/borrow).