How to Write 饮 (yǐn) — Meaning “to drink; beverage”

Picture a person (欠) being hungry and opening their mouth wide in front of food (饣) to take a drink. The left side looks like a simplified food container, and the right side is like a figure leaning forward to sip, so you can remember 'food + open mouth = drink'.

The left radical 饣 is written first with three strokes: a hook stroke for the 'fork' shape, then a short horizontal, then a vertical hook. The right part 欠 has four strokes, starting with a horizontal and a long left-falling stroke. A common mistake is to make the left radical too wide or to forget the second stroke inside the '饣'.

饥 (jī) has the same left radical 饣 but the right side is 几 (table), meaning 'hungry' not 'drink'. 饧 (xíng) also uses 饣 with the right side 工 (work) and means 'molasses' or 'sugar', a sweet substance. In contrast, 饮 uses 欠 which implies an open mouth, focusing on the action of drinking.

You use 饮 for 'to drink' in formal or written contexts, like in the word 饮料 (beverage) or 饮食 (diet). It appears in compound words such as 冷饮 (cold drink) and is common on menus and health discussions. Unlike 喝 (hē), which is the casual spoken verb for 'drink', 饮 is more formal and usually part of multi-character terms.

Common words containing 饮 include: 饮料 (yǐn liào) — beverage; drink; 饮食 (yǐn shí) — diet; food and drink; 冷饮 (lěng yǐn) — cold drink.