How to Write 言 (yán) — Meaning “speech; words; to speak”

Imagine the top dot and horizontal line as a floating speech bubble, and the mouth (口) below is speaking the words. You can also think of the three horizontal lines as three words being spoken, with the mouth at the bottom saying them.

Write the dot first, then the three horizontal strokes from top to bottom, followed by the vertical stroke that goes through the middle of the mouth, and finally the bottom horizontal stroke and the bottom horizontal of the mouth. A common mistake is making the mouth too wide—keep it compact and centered under the top strokes.

言 is a standalone character with 7 strokes, while 訇 is a compound character that has 言 on the left and 旬 (xún, meaning 'ten days') on the right. Visually, 訇 is wider and has more strokes (10 total). In meaning, 言 is about speech, but 訇 means a loud, crashing sound and is rarely used in modern Chinese.

言 appears in common words like 语言 (language) and 发言 (to speak at a meeting). It is also used in idioms such as 一言为定 (that's a deal, literally 'one word settles it'). Culturally, 言 is the radical for many characters related to speaking, showing how important speech is in Chinese thought.

Common words containing 言 include: 语言 (yǔ yán) — language; 发言 (fā yán) — to make a speech; to speak (at a meeting); 方言 (fāng yán) — dialect.