How to Write 渠 (qú) — Meaning “Canal or ditch”

Imagine a huge (巨) wooden (木) pipe carrying water (氵) through a farm — that pipe is a canal. The three parts spell out "water" + "huge" + "wood" to remind you of a large irrigation ditch. Visualize water flowing through a giant wooden channel to fix the shape in your mind.

The left radical 氵 should be written as three dots with the third dot slanting upward, not as a straight line. Inside the right part, the 巨 component has a horizontal stroke at the top that must connect to the left vertical stroke, and the final 木 must be placed neatly below it. A common mistake is making the right side too wide or forgetting the 木 at the bottom.

洁 (jié) means "clean" and uses the same water radical but has 吉 on the right, while 渠 is about canals. 洄 (huí) means "backwater" or "whirl" and uses 回 as its phonetic component, focusing on circular water movement, unlike 渠's linear channel. Visually, 洁 has a simpler right side and 洄 has 回, while 渠 has the distinctive 巨 plus 木 stack.

渠 is most common in the word 渠道 (qú dào), which means both physical water channels and abstract "mediums" or "channels" like marketing channels. It also appears in 水渠 (shuǐ qú) for irrigation ditches and 沟渠 (gōu qú) for drainage canals. Culturally, famous canals like 红旗渠 (Red Flag Canal) are named with 渠, symbolizing hard work and engineering in rural China.

Common words containing 渠 include: 渠道 (qú dào) — Channel or medium; 水渠 (shuǐ qú) — Canal / Irrigation ditch; 沟渠 (gōu qú) — Canal / Ditch.