Lesson 19 · Foundational Components

Strength, Hand, Blade: 力 / 又 / 刀

Three more two-stroke pictographs, all originally body-related like Lesson 11's hand and heart. 力 shows a bent arm or a plough, 又 a right hand, 刀 a knife. Together they build four extremely common characters: 加 (to add), 取 (to take), 分 (to divide), 双 (a pair).

Your three new components

力
 
lì
strength, power, force
2 strokes
又
 
yòu
again, also
2 strokes
刀
刂 (right side)
dāo
knife, blade
2 strokes

Quick recall — click each card to flip it:

力
lì — strength, power
又
yòu — again, also
刀
dāo — knife, blade
力 — pictogram of a bent arm, or a plough. Wiktionary reports both readings side by side: "either an arm bending out from the side of the body, or a wooden plough," with sources split on which came first. Either origin lands on the same modern sense — physical effort. Kangxi radical 19. (Wiktionary: 力)
又 used to mean "hand" — it doesn't any more. Wiktionary calls 又 a pictogram of a right hand, and the original form of 右 (yòu, "right," the direction). Standalone modern 又 has drifted entirely to a grammatical sense, "again, also," the same way Lesson 2's 子 drifted from "child" to an empty suffix. But the old "hand" meaning didn't disappear — it survives inside compound characters, including two below. Kangxi radical 29. (Wiktionary: 又)
刀 compresses to 刂 — but only on the right. Wiktionary describes 刀 as a pictogram of a knife. As a component it narrows to 刂 when it sits on the right side of a character, as in 到 (dào, "to arrive") and 别 (bié, "other; don't"). That's the opposite side from every compressed form you've met so far — Lesson 1's 氵 and Lesson 11's 忄/扌 all narrow on the left. Below, 分 keeps 刀's full shape, because there 刀 sits underneath its partner rather than beside it. Kangxi radical 18. (Wiktionary: 刀)

Stroke order

力 — 2 strokes

Stroke order diagram for 力, 2 strokes
力 — 2 strokes
▶ watch animated

又 — 2 strokes

Stroke order diagram for 又, 2 strokes
又 — 2 strokes
▶ watch animated

刀 — 2 strokes

Stroke order diagram for 刀, 2 strokes
刀 — 2 strokes
▶ watch animated

Examples using these components

力 builds 加, joining a component from Lesson 1:

加jiāto add, to increase

力+口=加

An ideogrammic compound: the Shuowen dictionary defines it as 力 (strength, semantic) + 口 (mouth, semantic — from Lesson 1), with a commentary tradition reading it as an exclamation over one's own effort. Wiktionary notes an alternative reading of 力 as "plowing," with 口 as the accompanying grunt of effort. Either way, both pieces carry meaning; neither is phonetic. (Wiktionary: 加)

又's old "hand" sense resurfaces in 取, alongside 耳 from last lesson:

取qǔto take, to fetch, to get

耳+又=取

Ideogrammic: 耳 (ear, semantic — from Lesson 18) + 又 (hand, semantic, in its old sense). Wiktionary traces the image to a hunting rite recorded in the Rites of Zhou — taking the ear of fallen prey as proof of the kill. (Wiktionary: 取)

刀 builds 分, reusing a component from Lesson 6:

分fēnto divide, to separate

八+刀=分

Also "minute" and a small currency unit (0.01 yuan). Ideogrammic: 八 (to separate, semantic — from Lesson 6) + 刀 (knife, semantic) — "separating with a knife." (Wiktionary: 分)

又 doubles, the same way Lesson 1's 木 doubled into 林 and Lesson 7's 火 doubled into part of 炎:

双shuānga pair, both, double

又+又=双

Simplified 双 replaces the traditional 雙, whose own composition Wiktionary describes as 雔 (two 隹, zhuī, "short-tailed bird") held in 又 (hand) — "two birds in someone's hand." Simplification kept only the 又, doubled. (Wiktionary: 雙, Wiktionary: 双)

Stroke order for today's characters

加 — 5 strokes

Stroke order diagram for 加, 5 strokes
加 — 5 strokes
▶ watch animated

取 — 8 strokes

Stroke order diagram for 取, 8 strokes
取 — 8 strokes
▶ watch animated

分 — 4 strokes

Stroke order diagram for 分, 4 strokes
分 — 4 strokes
▶ watch animated

双 — 4 strokes

Stroke order diagram for 双, 4 strokes
双 — 4 strokes
▶ watch animated

Check your recall

又 was originally a pictogram of a:

In 分 (八+刀), why does 刀 keep its full shape instead of becoming 刂?

加 (力+口) means:

取 (耳+又) combines "ear" with which old sense of 又?

双 (又+又) simplifies traditional 雙, which depicted:

Go further

Etymology sources for every character above are linked inline. For the rigorous version of any of them, see the Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters.

Out in the world: 三加五 (sān jiā wǔ, "three plus five" — 三 and 五 from Lesson 5 and Lesson 6) reads a sum exactly as printed on a receipt or in a classroom. 十分 (shífēn, "very, extremely" — 十 from Lesson 5) is a common intensifier, stronger than 很. 双手 (shuāngshǒu, "both hands" — 手 from Lesson 11) is fully readable now too.