How to Write 赊 (shē) — Meaning “to buy or sell on credit”

Imagine a person named "She" who wants to buy something but has no cash, so she puts it on credit — the left side 贝 (money) reminds you it involves money, and 佘 sounds like "she" who owes. So think: "She owes money — that's 赊."

The left part 贝 has 4 strokes: vertical, horizontal fold, left-falling, and a short dot. The right part 佘 has 7 strokes: start with 人 (a left-falling and right-falling), then 二 (two horizontal strokes), and finish with 小 (three strokes). A common mistake is to mix up 佘 with 余 (yú) — notice that 佘 has a smaller bottom part (小) while 余 has 禾 on top.

贰 (èr, meaning 'two' or 'disloyal') has 贝 on the left and the number 二 on the right, so it looks like 'money two'. 贱 (jiàn, meaning 'cheap' or 'lowly') has 贝 and 戋 (a small, narrow component). 赊 uses 佘, which is a surname character, not a number or a simple component — so the right side distinguishes each one visually and in meaning.

赊 is common in everyday business, especially in small shops or markets where customers can buy now and pay later — for example, 赊账 (shē zhàng) means 'to put something on account'. In China, it is still used in rural areas or close communities where trust allows credit purchases. You might also see it in legal or accounting contexts when discussing debt.

Common words containing 赊 include: 赊账 (shē zhàng) — to buy on credit; to put on account; 赊购 (shē gòu) — to purchase on credit; 赊欠 (shē qiàn) — to buy on credit; to owe.