How to Write 佯 (yáng) — Meaning “To pretend”

Imagine a person (亻) wearing a sheep (羊) costume to pretend to be a sheep. This visual trick helps you link the character to its meaning 'to pretend.' The picture of a human acting like a sheep makes the concept of pretending easy to recall.

Write the left radical 亻 first with two strokes: a left-slanting stroke followed by a vertical stroke. Then write the right side 羊: start with the two dots, then the horizontal strokes from top to bottom, and finish with the long vertical stroke. A common mistake is making the left vertical stroke too short or misplacing the two dots on top of 羊.

佯 (yáng, to pretend) has the 羊 component on the right, while 仰 (yǎng, to look up or admire) has 卩 (seal) on the right, and 仲 (zhòng, middle or second) has 中 (middle) on the right. Visually, 佯's right side has a 'sheep' shape with dots, while 仰 has a single curved stroke, and 仲 has a box shape with a vertical line.

佯 is used in formal or literary contexts, often in words like 佯装 (to pretend) and 佯攻 (feint attack in military strategy). It is not common in everyday speech, but appears in news, novels, or historical texts. Culturally, 佯 carries a sense of deliberate deception, not playful pretending.

Common words containing 佯 include: 佯装 (yáng zhuāng) — To pretend; 佯言 (yáng yán) — To lie / To feign speech; 佯攻 (yáng gōng) — Feint attack.