liú
flow
In Chinese, '流' (liú) captures the essence of how things move smoothly and continuously in a certain direction, just like 'flow' in English. It is widely used in various contexts, such as '流星' (liú xīng) meaning 'shooting star', with the flow referring to their rapid movement across the sky. Another example includes '流感' (liú gǎn) referring to 'flu' delineating how rapidly and widely the disease can spread.
Tā de huàyǔ liúchàng fēicháng.
His words flow very smoothly.
The context of '流' here denotes the smooth progression or 'flow' of words from someone.
Dìxiàshuǐ xiàng dī chù liú.
Groundwater flows to lower places.
The sentence talks about the movement or 'flow' of groundwater towards lower areas.
Jiāngshuǐ búduàn de wǎng dōng liú.
The river keeps flowing eastward.
This sentence simply describes an objective fact about the direction that a river flows.
Nǐ de yǎnlèi liú xià lái le.
Your tears are falling.
Tears fall from the eyes when one is crying. In this context, the word '流' represents the action of 'falling' or 'dropping'.
Zhè shǒu gē liúchuánle hěn jiǔ.
This song has been spread for a long time.
This sentence means that the song has been disseminated or spread for a long period over a wide area. '流' in '流传' is used to imply 'spreading'.
Zhè héshuǐ chángnián liúdòng.
The river flows all year long.
In this context, '流' is used to describe the constant movement of water in a river.
Xuèyè zài wǒmen shēntǐ zhōng liútōng.
Blood circulates in our bodies.
Here '流' represents the circulation or flow of blood within our bodies.
Hàn liú jiā bèi.
Sweat is soaked behind.
It's a traditional Chinese four-character phrase. That means sweat is flowing down the back very much.
Xiǎo xī chánchán liúshuǐ.
The brook babbles.
In this Chinese sentence, '流' simply represents the running of water in a brook.
Tā bìngle, bítì liú ge bùtíng.
He is sick and his nose keeps running.
In this context, '流' is used to describe the action of 'running nose'.