How it changed
The story
Checks outThe earliest confirmed form is Warring States 㤅. 旡 supplied the sound and 心 supplied the meaning. Later forms added 夂, and the old 旡 shape eventually developed into the familiar top of 愛. The lower part of 爱 was not invented in 1956: similar running-script forms existed centuries earlier, with 心 and 夂 joined into a 友-like shape. The 1956 simplification standardized 爱. The popular image of a hand covering a heart is a modern mnemonic, not the documented origin.
What it’s made of
See it in a story
Related characters
Read characters like this in real stories
Every one has word-level pinyin, narrated audio and tap-to-define.
- HSK 1
The Wrong Phone
Two classmates take identical phones by mistake and can’t unlock them or answer calls.
3 chapters · audio + pinyin
- HSK 2
The Book We Both Wanted
Two customers claim one childhood book; a shopkeeper gives them until six to explain why.
4 chapters · audio + pinyin
- HSK 3
No Seat in the Library
She resents a classmate who keeps saving an empty seat. Then she hears about his sick roommate.
6 chapters · audio + pinyin
- HSK 4
Sunrise on Huangshan
Four friends go to see the Huangshan sunrise and get train delays, a storm, and a bad booking.
6 chapters · audio + pinyin
- HSK 5
Dumplings or Tangyuan
Her first winter solstice as a wife, and her mother-in-law has hidden the tangyuan flour.
6 chapters · audio + pinyin
- HSK 6
The Kitchen Behind the App
Illness complaints lead an inspector to twelve delivery restaurants sharing four kitchens.
6 chapters · audio + pinyin