How to Write 咽 (yān/yàn/yè) — Meaning “to swallow”

Imagine you use your mouth (口) to swallow a big "cause" (因) — you are swallowing a whole reason or event. This visual of gulping down a large 因 helps link the shape to the meaning "to swallow." The key is to picture the mouth on the left doing the swallowing action on the box-like 因 on the right.

Write the left radical 口 first with three strokes: left vertical, top horizontal with right hook, and bottom horizontal. Then add the right part 因: draw the outer box (three strokes) and finally the inner 大 (three strokes, horizontal then two diagonals). A common mistake is making the 因 box too narrow or forgetting the bottom horizontal of the outer enclosure, so keep proportions even.

咽 has 口 on the left side, while 君 has 口 at the bottom under 尹, and 吝 has 口 at the bottom under 文. Their meanings are completely different: 咽 means "to swallow" or "throat," 君 means "ruler" or "lord," and 吝 means "stingy" or "mean." Visually, 咽 looks wider because of the 因 component on the right, unlike the compact bottoms of 君 and 吝.

咽 commonly appears in words like 咽喉 (throat) and 吞咽 (to swallow), which are used in medical and daily contexts. The phrase 咽气 literally means "to swallow the last breath" and is a cultural euphemism for dying. In Chinese medicine and idioms, 咽喉 often represents a vital passage or key point, similar to "bottleneck" in English.

Common words containing 咽 include: 咽喉 (yān hóu) — throat; 吞咽 (tūn yàn) — to swallow / deglutition; 咽气 (yàn qì) — To breathe one's last; to die..