六 (liù) · six, 6

Meanings

1 six
2 6

Characters

六

liù

six

Examples

HSK 1

他有六个孩子。

Tā yǒu liù gè háizi.

He has six children.

HSK 2

星期六是我最喜欢的一天。

Xīngqīliù shì wǒ zuì xǐhuan de yì tiān.

Saturday is my favorite day of the week.

HSK 3

六月是夏天。

Liùyuè shì xiàtiān.

June is summer.

Tips

culture

六 sounds like 溜 ('smooth, flowing'), making it a lucky number associated with things going smoothly. '666' is internet slang for 'awesome / skilled' in China - the opposite of its Western connotation.

register

六 has a rare second reading 六 (lù) used only in a handful of place names: 六合 (Luhe District of Nanjing) and 六安 (Lu'an, the prefecture in Anhui famous for 六安瓜片 tea). Treat these as fixed proper-noun exceptions - everywhere else, 六 is liù.

Components

radical

八 bā

eight; splay

Bottom radical 八 (eight, splayed lines) is the indexing radical of 六. Even though etymologically 八 has nothing to do with 'six', the splayed-line shape is unmistakable beneath the lid. Useful pedagogy: think of 六 as 'a small lid over a splaying-eight' - the indexing radical that lets you find it in any traditional dictionary.

ideograph

亠 tóu

lid radical

The 亠 'lid' radical - a horizontal plus downward dot used as a graphic cap on many chars (亡, 京, 文). Here it functions as a positional cover above the splayed legs below to form the 'six' silhouette. Strict etymology says 六 originally pictured a small hut.