How to Write 佟 (tóng) — Meaning “Tong (a surname)”

Imagine a person (亻) standing outside in winter (冬) — that lonely person is Mr. Tong. The picture of someone shivering in the cold helps link the shape of 冬 to the surname Tong. Just remember that the winter part gives the sound, not the meaning.

Write the left radical 亻 first as two strokes: a short left-falling stroke then a vertical line. Then write the right part 冬: start with the top left-falling stroke, then a horizontal hook, and finally two dots below. A common mistake is making the right side too narrow or forgetting the hook in the middle.

佟 has 冬 on the right, while 仔 has 子 (child) and 仕 has 士 (scholar-official). 佟 is only a surname, but 仔 can mean 'young' or 'son' and 仕 means 'to be an official' or 'official'. Visually, the bottom part of 佟 has two dots like ice, while 仔 has a single horizontal line and 仕 has a wider 士.

佟 is exclusively a Chinese surname, not a common word. You will see it in names like 佟大为 (Tong Dawei), a famous actor, or in titles like 佟先生 (Mr. Tong). It is not part of the HSK vocabulary because it only appears as a family name.

Common words containing 佟 include: 佟先生 (tóng xiān shēng) — Mr. Tong; 姓佟 (xìng tóng) — surnamed Tong; 佟大为 (tóng dà wèi) — Tong Dawei (a famous Chinese actor).