水

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water

On-Yomi: スイ — Kun-Yomi: みず、みず-

Elements:

water

Heisig story:

This character, which looks a bit like a snowflake, is actually a pictograph of water - not any particular body of water or movement of water, but simply the generic name for water. Should you have any difficulty remembering it, simply think of a walking stick being dropped vertically into the water, sending droplets out in all four directions. Then all you need to learn is how to write it in proper order.

Heisig comment:

* As a primitive, this character can keep its form, or it can be written with three drops to the left of another primitive. This latter, as we will see, is far more common.

Koohii stories:

1) [Danieru] 8-11-2007(67): The kanji for water is an abstract primitive itself, so unless one is willing to break down its etymological development, it should just simply be memorized by strokes; constructing a story is not necessarily useful unless it strongly denotes its shape (I find that Heisig's story doesn't do this).

2) [CandyCane] 5-10-2008(54): For those having issues with this* "A 7K foot pool of water" Notice it looks like a 7, and a K. Might have to practice writing it a few times.

3) [Ozmos] 10-9-2009(34): When you squeeze a stream you get water.

4) [Christine_Tham] 24-7-2007(6): Dropping a hooked walking stick into the water causes a splash. (The primitive is often contracted to just two drops and a walking stick).

5) [foros] 7-3-2010(4): Dropping the walking stick into the water sent out droplets in 4 directions.

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