How to Write 楼 (lóu) — Meaning “building; floor”

Imagine a building (楼) made of wood (木) where a woman (女) is carrying rice (米) upstairs to each floor. This picture links the radical and the right part together, making the character easy to recall.

Write the left radical 木 first (horizontal, vertical, left-falling, right-falling), then the right part 娄: start with 米 (dot, left-falling, horizontal, vertical, left-falling, right-falling) and finish with 女 (left-falling-dot, left-falling, horizontal). A common mistake is making the bottom 女 too narrow; keep it slightly wider than the 米 above.

楼 has the right part 娄 (rice + woman), while 桫 (suō) has 沙 (water + few) and 桲 (bó) has 孛 (a rare component). 楼 is very common in daily life (building, floor), but 桫 and 桲 are rarely used names of plants or tools, so you will almost never need them.

楼 means 'building' or 'floor' and appears in common words like 大楼 (big building) and 上楼 (go upstairs). In Chinese addresses, 楼 often specifies a building number, and '楼下' (downstairs) is frequently used in daily conversation to refer to the ground floor or a lower level.

Common words containing 楼 include: 大楼 (dà lóu) — Building; 上楼 (shàng lóu) — To go upstairs; 楼下 (lóu xià) — downstairs.