How to Write 捡 (jiǎn) — Meaning “Pick up / Gather”

Imagine you use your hand (扌) to pick up all the coins on the ground. The right side 佥 looks like a stack of coins or a hand reaching for coins, and it sounds like 'check' — you check the ground and pick up what you find.

Write the left radical 扌 first with its three strokes. For the right side 佥, start with 人 (two slanting strokes), then three horizontal lines, and finally a 口 box. A common mistake is writing the top as 入 instead of 人, or confusing 佥 with 全 (quán, complete).

㧜 is extremely rare and not used in modern Chinese, so you will almost never encounter it. 抨 (pēng) means 'to attack or criticize' and uses the right component 平 (píng, flat), while 捡 uses 佥 and means 'pick up'. Visually, 抨 has a flat horizontal top in 平, while 捡 has the slanted strokes of 人 on top.

捡 is commonly used for physically picking up objects like money (捡钱) or trash (捡垃圾). It also appears in idiomatic expressions such as 捡了芝麻丢了西瓜 (pick up sesame seeds but lose the watermelon), which warns against focusing on small gains while missing bigger opportunities.

Common words containing 捡 include: 捡钱 (jiǎn qián) — Pick up money / Find money; 捡垃圾 (jiǎn lā jī) — Pick up trash; 捡起来 (jiǎn qǐ lái) — Pick it up.