How to Write 丫 (yā) — Meaning “fork; bifurcation; girl”

Picture a little girl with two pigtails sticking out from her head — the two diagonal strokes are the pigtails, and the vertical stroke is her neck. This visual makes the fork shape easy to recall. Alternatively, think of the letter 'Y' (which sounds like 'yā') as a simple fork in the road.

Write the left-falling stroke first, then the right-falling stroke, and finish with the vertical stroke from top to bottom. Make sure the two diagonal strokes are symmetric and join at the same point; a common mistake is making one side longer or the vertical stroke off-center. The vertical stroke should be straight and slightly longer than the two diagonals for balance.

丫 looks like a fork with three strokes, while 丨 is just a single vertical line meaning 'line' or 'stroke'. 丩 is an ancient character meaning 'to entangle', consisting of two vertical lines with a horizontal crossbar near the top — it is rare and unrelated to the fork shape. So 丫 is the only one that suggests a Y-shaped split.

丫 appears in informal, everyday words like 丫头 (yā tou), meaning 'girl' or 'young maid' (used affectionately), and 脚丫 (jiǎo yā), meaning 'foot' or 'toes'. It is also used in 树丫 (shù yā) for a tree fork. Culturally, 丫头 was once a term for a female servant but now is a casual, often endearing way to refer to a young girl.

Common words containing 丫 include: 丫头 (yā tou) — girl; young maid; 脚丫 (jiǎo yā) — foot; toes (informal); 树丫 (shù yā) — Tree fork.