How to Write 妊 (rèn) — Meaning “To be pregnant”

Picture a woman (女) who has a big round belly like the shape of 壬 — imagine the top stroke of 壬 as the baby's head and the vertical stroke as the body. This image of a woman carrying a baby in her belly helps you remember that 妊 means 'to be pregnant'.

Write the left radical 女 first with three strokes (㇆ノ一), keeping it narrow. Then write the right part 壬 with four strokes: a short left-falling stroke, a horizontal line, a vertical stroke through the middle, and a final long horizontal line at the bottom. A common mistake is making the vertical stroke of 壬 too short or forgetting the left-falling stroke at the top.

While all three share the 女 radical, 奴 has 又 (hand) on the right and means 'slave', 奶 has 乃 on the right and means 'milk' or 'breast', but 妊 has 壬 on the right and specifically means 'pregnancy'. Visually, the right side of 妊 has a vertical line through the middle, unlike the cross shape of 奴 or the hook shape of 奶.

妊 is mostly used in formal or medical terms like 妊娠 (pregnancy) and 妊妇 (pregnant woman). In everyday conversation, Chinese speakers prefer the common word 怀孕 (huái yùn) for 'to be pregnant', so 妊 appears more often in written reports, hospital documents, or textbooks. Knowing 妊 helps you understand formal pregnancy-related vocabulary.

Common words containing 妊 include: 妊娠 (rèn shēn) — Pregnancy; 妊妇 (rèn fù) — Pregnant woman; 受妊 (shòu rèn) — to conceive or become pregnant.