How to Write 濮 (pú) — Meaning “Pu (river name)”

Imagine a servant (僕) who is very tired and wants to drink water (氵) from the Pu River. The servant character 僕 has many small parts, so picture them as drops of water along the river.

濮 has 17 strokes and is fairly wide—keep the left 氵 narrow and the right 僕 balanced. Write the 氵 first as three dots, then the 僕 part carefully: start with the left side 亻, then the upper part 菐 (which has a 业-like shape), and finally the bottom 冫-like strokes; be careful not to make the right side too tall.

濮 has 氵 on the left and a complex right side 僕 (many strokes), while 潘 has 氵 plus 番 (fewer strokes) and 滕 has a different structure: 月 (meat) on the left and 水 (water) on the bottom. Visually, 濮’s right side is the most detailed, with a person radical (亻) and extra strokes above.

濮 is used mainly in the place name 濮阳 (Púyáng), a city in Henan province with a long history, and as a surname 濮 (Pú). It also appears in the historical river name 濮水. It is not common in everyday vocabulary but is important for geographic and family names.

Common words containing 濮 include: 濮阳 (pú yáng) — Puyang (a city in Henan); 濮水 (pú shuǐ) — Pu River; 姓濮 (xìng pú) — Surname Pu.