How to Write 走 (zǒu) — Meaning “To walk / To go”

Imagine a person with two long legs (the top part) taking steps, with the bottom part 止 looking like a footprint. The shape resembles someone striding forward, so you can remember '走' as 'walking with big steps'.

The stroke order starts with the top cross stroke, then the vertical line, followed by the two horizontal lines, then the left-falling stroke, and finally the bottom 止 part. A common mistake is making the top part too wide or forgetting the left-falling stroke that connects to the bottom.

赳 and 赴 both have 走 on the left but add other parts; 赳 means 'valiant' and uses 九 on the right, while 赴 means 'to go to' and uses 卜 (divination). The key difference is that 走 alone is a basic verb, whereas 赳 and 赴 are compound characters with specialized meanings.

走 is very common in daily speech for 'to walk' or 'to leave,' as in 走路 (walk) or 走了 (has left). In Chinese culture, saying 走吧 (let's go) is a friendly way to suggest moving together, and the character appears in many idioms like 走马观花 (glancing over things quickly).

Common words containing 走 include: 走路 (zǒu lù) — To walk.; 走了 (zǒu le) — Left / Gone; 走吧 (zǒu ba) — Let's go..