How to Write 曲 (qū/qǔ) — Meaning “song / tune / bent / curved”

Imagine a curved road shaped like the letter 'U', and on top of it sits a speaker (the radical 曰) playing a song — so the curved road produces a tune. Alternatively, think of a bent musical note: the outer frame is the curve, and the inner lines are the note's stem and flag. This combines both meanings: a bent shape and a melody.

Stroke order: first write the left vertical stroke, then the top horizontal, then the inner left vertical, then the inner horizontal, then the inner right vertical, and finally the bottom horizontal. A common mistake is making the inner vertical strokes too long; they should stop at the middle horizontal, not touch the bottom. Also keep the top and bottom horizontals parallel and slightly longer than the inner horizontal.

曰 (yuē) means 'to say' and has only four strokes — a rectangular box with one horizontal line inside, so it looks like a simple square. 曱 (yuē) is a rare character used in Cantonese for 'cockroach' (曱甴) and visually resembles 曰 but with an extra stroke inside making it look like two horizontal lines. 曲 has six strokes with three horizontals and three verticals, forming a grid, and is much more common.

曲 is used in music words like 歌曲 (song) and 曲调 (melody), and also in everyday words like 弯曲 (curved). Culturally, 曲 also refers to a classical Chinese poetic form (元曲, Yuan opera lyrics), which is an important part of Chinese literature. You will see it in song titles and descriptions of winding roads or bent objects.

Common words containing 曲 include: 歌曲 (gē qǔ) — Song; 曲调 (qǔ diào) — Melody; tune.; 弯曲 (wān qū) — Curved, winding.