How to Write 潟 (xì) — Meaning “lagoon; salt flat”

Imagine a lagoon (潟) shaped like a giant "bird perching" — the right part 舃 looks like a bird on a rock. Water (氵) surrounds it, making a salt flat. Picture a salty lake with a bird standing in it to recall both the water and the land.

Pay attention to the right part 舃: it has 9 strokes, starting with a short horizontal stroke on top, then a left-falling stroke, then the small component 臼-like shape, and finally a 丶 dot. A common mistake is to write the top of 舃 as 臼 (jiù) instead of 臼-like with a horizontal line. Keep the water radical 氵 narrow and aligned to the left.

潟 means lagoon or salt flat, specifically a body of salt water separated from the sea. 溏 (táng) means a pool or pond, often with muddy or semi-solid water, and 源 (yuán) means source or origin, like a river's start. Visually, 潟 has the complex right part 舃, while 溏 has 唐 and 源 has 原.

潟 is a rare character not in the HSK vocabulary, mainly used in geographic terms like 潟湖 (xìhú, lagoon) and 盐潟 (yánxì, salt lagoon). You might see it in scientific writing about coastal landforms or in place names like Xì Hú (Lagoon Lake) in Taiwan. It often describes specific wetland environments.

Common words containing 潟 include: 潟湖 (xì hú) — lagoon; 盐潟 (yán xì) — salt lagoon; 潟地 (xì dì) — salt marsh.