How to Write 潽 (pū) — Meaning “to boil over”

Picture a pot of water on a stove where the water is boiling so strongly that it spreads over the top (like the radical 氵) and floods the kitchen floor. The right side 普 can be remembered as 'all over'—the water goes all over the stove. So 潽 means 'boil over' because the water goes everywhere.

The left part 氵 (three dots) should be written compactly and slanted slightly downward. The right part 普 has a top 艹 (grass radical) that must not be too wide; the bottom 日 should be narrower and centered. A common mistake is making the right side too tall—keep the overall character balanced and not too stretched.

潽 (pū) means 'to boil over' and is used for liquid spilling out of a pot, while 溏 (táng) is a different character meaning 'semi-liquid' or 'not fully solid', like a soft-boiled egg. Visually, 潽 has 普 on the right, whereas 溏 has 唐 (táng). Their meanings are completely unrelated—潽 is about overflow, 溏 is about texture.

潽 is a colloquial character used mainly in daily cooking situations, such as telling someone to watch the pot so it doesn't boil over (别潽了). It is not part of the HSK vocabulary, so learners may only encounter it in spoken Chinese or recipes. There is no special cultural note, but it is very practical for kitchen conversations.

Common words containing 潽 include: 潽锅 (pū guō) — to boil over (of a pot); 潽出来 (pū chū lái) — to boil over or spill out; 别潽了 (bié pū le) — Don't let it boil over..