How to Write 诣 (yì) — Meaning “attainment; to visit (formal)”

Think of the left side 讠 as a speech bubble, and the right side 旨 as a target or bullseye. Imagine a person speaking directly toward a target to achieve a high level of skill — that is 造诣 (attainment). Another trick: 'I (yi) speak (讠) with purpose (旨) when visiting a superior.'

Write the speech radical 讠 first as two strokes: a dot then a horizontal-turning stroke. The right part 旨 has seven strokes: start with the top '匕' (two strokes), then '日' (four strokes) — note the bottom of '日' is slightly wider than the top. Common mistakes: making the right side too tall or forgetting the short horizontal stroke inside '日'; keep the character balanced with the left slightly smaller.

讲 (jiǎng, speak) uses the same radical 讠 but has 井 on the right, meaning 'well' — it focuses on speaking clearly. 讳 (huì, taboo) has 韦 on the right and means to avoid mentioning something, often used in names. 诣 specifically implies a formal visit or reaching a high level of skill, as in 造诣 (attainment), which the others do not share.

诣 is quite formal and is most commonly used in the word 造诣 (zào yì) to describe someone's high level of skill or knowledge, like 'artistic attainment'. It also appears in the idiom 苦心孤诣 (kǔ xīn gū yì) meaning painstaking effort to achieve mastery, and in formal contexts like 诣见 (yì jiàn) for visiting a superior. You will rarely see it in everyday conversation, but it is valued in written Chinese for elegance.

Common words containing 诣 include: 造诣 (zào yì) — attainment; 苦心孤诣 (kǔ xīn gū yì) — To make painstaking efforts / to reach a high level through hard work; 诣见 (yì jiàn) — to pay a visit to (a superior).