Kilo Lingo

(yú) - at, in, on, from, to (literary preposition) in Mandarin

Traditional: 于

Line drawing of 于
Coloured illustration of 于
HSK 5
#549 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

at, in, on, from, to (literary preposition)

Word origin

于 (yú) is a literary preposition meaning 'at, in, from'. It derives from an ancient graph; the picture is not firmly agreed, but the character has long served as a grammatical preposition introducing place or relation.

Origin
pictograph (early form uncertain)
Root
于, an ancient graph used as a grammatical preposition

Stroke order

Stroke order for 于

Examples

1990

He was born in 1990.

2005

The company was established in 2005.

jiǔjiǔlíng

He was born in 1990.

The project will be completed next year.

于 (yú) is a literary preposition equivalent to 在 (zài, at/in) in formal and written Mandarin. It indicates time, place, or source (生于, born at; 于...时, at the time of; 源于, originating from). In modern speech 在 is used in most cases, but 于 remains common in formal writing, official documents, and fixed phrases. Many compound prepositions built on 于 survive in everyday use: 对于 (regarding), 由于 (due to), 关于 (about).

Appears in 6 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 于.

Used in

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This word is part of lesson 11.