The wood radical: 木

木 mù means tree or wood and has four strokes. It appears in 林 lín (woods), 森 sēn (forest), 杯 bēi (cup), and 桥 qiáo (bridge). On the left side it is drawn narrower, but it is still the same component.

Writing 木

木 has four strokes: a horizontal, a vertical, a stroke falling to the lower left, and a stroke falling to the lower right. When 木 sits on the left of a character, as in 杯, it is squeezed into a narrow space. In many fonts and in handwriting the last stroke becomes shorter, almost like a dot, so the right side has room. This is a change in proportion, not a different component.

Examples with 木

林 and 森 are easy wins: two trees make a grove, three make a forest. For 杯 and 桥, a memory hook like "a cup carved from wood" or "a wooden bridge" can help, but treat it as a memory aid, not a claim about how these characters developed.

The readings lín, sēn, bēi, qiáo, shù, and yǐ show that 木 does not tell you the pronunciation. Learn each whole character's reading instead of reading every visible 木 as mù.

A clue, not a rule

Plenty of 木 characters have modern meanings far from trees. 机 jī means machine, and 校 xiào appears in 学校 xuéxiào (school). Use 木 as a hint, then rely on the word.

Lookalikes: 本, 未, 末

Three common characters are built on the 木 shape with one extra horizontal stroke. They are separate characters with their own meanings:

• 本 běn (root, origin; also a measure word for books): a short horizontal crosses the lower vertical.
• 未 wèi (not yet): an extra horizontal on top, shorter than the one below it.
• 末 mò (end, tip): an extra horizontal on top, longer than the one below it.

To tell 未 from 末, compare the two horizontal strokes. Short on top means 未; long on top means 末.

Recognition drill

Identify each character: where can you spot 木, and which whole-character lookalikes need their own reading? 村 本 椅 未 机 休.

休 links nicely to the person radical guide. You can also compare 木 with other nature radicals in the fire radical guide, or drill it with the flashcards.