How to Write 洋 (yáng) — Meaning “Ocean; foreign.”

Imagine a sheep (羊) swimming across a vast body of water (氵) to reach a foreign land. This combines both meanings: the water (ocean) and the sheep (phonetic hint) help you recall that 洋 means both ocean and foreign.

Write the left radical 氵 first with three dots: the top two are closer together, the bottom dot is separate. Then write the right part 羊: start with the two dots on top, then the horizontal lines, and finally the vertical stroke down the middle. A common mistake is making the right side too wide or forgetting that the vertical stroke passes through all horizontal lines.

洋 (yáng, ocean/foreign) has the right component 羊 (sheep), while 㳄 (xián) means saliva and has 欠 on the right. 汧 (qiān) is an ancient river name and has 开 on the right. Unlike 洋, these two are rare in modern Chinese and appear only in specialized or historical texts.

洋 is very common in words like 海洋 (hǎi yáng, ocean) and 太平洋 (tài píng yáng, Pacific Ocean). It also means foreign, as in 洋娃娃 (yáng wá wá, doll) or 洋酒 (yáng jiǔ, imported liquor); however, using 洋 to mean foreign can sound dated or informal in modern China.

Common words containing 洋 include: 海洋 (hǎi yáng) — Ocean; 洋娃娃 (yáng wá wá) — Doll.; 太平洋 (tài píng yáng) — Pacific Ocean..