CHINESE CHARACTER LOOKUP

What does 爱 mean?

爱 is pronounced ài in Mandarin and means love, affection, or to be fond of something.

CHARACTER / READING / STRUCTURE

Quick facts for 爱

U+7231

爱ài

love, affection, or to be fond of something

Pinyin: ài
Meaning: love, affection, or to be fond of something
Radical: 爫
Stroke count: 10
Structure: top-bottom structure
Formation: ideographic compound
Unicode: U+7231
Regional forms: 爱 / 愛
Cantonese: oi3
Japanese readings: 音読み：アイ／訓読み：いとしい・めでる
Korean Hanja: 애

Look up another Chinese character

REGIONAL FORMS

Forms and readings of 爱 by region

The table compares common glyphs and readings. It does not imply that every language uses the character with exactly the same meaning or frequency.

Usage	Form	Reading
Simplified Chinese	爱	ài
Traditional Chinese	愛	ài
Japanese Kanji	愛	音読み：アイ／訓読み：いとしい・めでる
Korean Hanja	愛	애

COMMON WORDS

Common words containing 爱

A character's reading and meaning can change with context. These are three useful examples.

Word	Reading	Meaning
爱情	àiqíng	love or romantic affection
爱好	àihào	hobby; to be fond of
可爱	kě'ài	cute or lovable

RADICAL / COMPONENTS

Radical and structure of 爱

爱 uses the 爫 radical, has 10 strokes and a top-bottom structure. Its IDS representation is ⿱⿱爫冖友; visible components include 爫, 冖, 友.

STROKE ORDER / PRACTICE

Continue studying 爱

Open the matching tool to animate its strokes, check Mandarin pronunciation, inspect the component tree or make a printable writing worksheet.

View animated stroke order

Questions about the character 爱

How is 爱 pronounced in Mandarin?

爱 is pronounced ài in Mandarin. It means love, affection, or to be fond of something.

What are the radical and stroke count for 爱?

爱 uses the 爫 radical and has 10 strokes in the form shown on this page.

What are the Simplified and Traditional forms of 爱?

The common Simplified form is 爱; the Traditional form is 愛.

How can I practise writing 爱?

Open the animated stroke-order tool, then make a printable Tian Zi Ge or Mi Zi Ge worksheet from the practice-sheet link.

Data sources：Radicals, strokes, readings and variants use Unicode Unihan; decomposition data comes from Make Me a Hanzi. Regional glyph, stroke-order and usage conventions may differ, so verify formal work against the relevant local standard. Make Me a Hanzi · Unicode Unihan