Meaning of 福
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- good fortune
- happiness
- luck
- surname Fu
- abbr. for Fujian province 福建省[Fu2 jian4 Sheng3]
How to use 福
福 (fú) appears mostly in set words like 幸福 (xìngfú, happy) and 祝福 (zhùfú, blessings) rather than alone. During Spring Festival people paste a red 福 on their doors. Example: 祝你幸福。(Zhù nǐ xìngfú.) I wish you happiness.
Look at the parts of 福: on the left is the altar radical 礻, and on the right is 畐, which looks like a roof, a mouth, and a field. Picture someone at an altar praying for a full table and a good field, and you have good fortune.
Common mistake: Learners often write the left side as 衤 (the clothing radical, with an extra dot) instead of 礻, which turns it into the wrong character 褔. Also keep the tone a rising second tone, fú, not fù as in 富 (fù, rich).
福 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
福 fú · good fortune · 13 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 福.
| 幸福 | xìngfú | happiness; happy |
| 祝福 | zhùfú | blessings; to wish sb well |
| 福利 | fúlì | benefit (provided by an employer or organization); (social) welfare |
| 福气 | fúqi | good fortune; a blessing |
| 造福 | zàofú | to benefit (e.g. the people) |
| 福音 | fúyīn | good news; glad tidings |
| 大福 | dàfú | a great blessing; daifuku, a traditional Japanese sweet consisting of a soft, chewy outer |
| 来福枪 | láifúqiāng | rifle (loanword); also written 來復槍|来复枪 |
| 赐福 | cìfú | to bless |
| 福林 | fúlín | forint (Hungarian currency) (loanword) |
| 祈福 | qífú | to pray for blessings |
| 全家福 | quánjiāfú | photograph of the entire family; hodgepodge (cookery) |
Questions about 福
What does 福 mean?
福 (fú) means "good fortune; happiness" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 福?
福 is made of 1 character: 福 (13 strokes). That is 13 strokes in total.
Is 福 an HSK word?
Yes. 福 is on the HSK 3 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
Why is the 福 character sometimes hung upside down?
The word for upside down, 倒 (dào), sounds like 到 (dào), to arrive. So an upside down 福 suggests 福到了 (fú dào le), good fortune has arrived.
What is the difference between 福气 and 幸福?
福气 (fúqi) means good luck or a blessing that someone has, as in 你真有福气 (nǐ zhēn yǒu fúqi), you are really lucky. 幸福 (xìngfú) describes a feeling or state of happiness, as in 生活很幸福 (shēnghuó hěn xìngfú), life is very happy.