下雨
xiàyǔ · HSK 1
rain
🌧️ 下 = down + 雨 = rain; 'rain coming down'
下 means 'down' or 'to fall', and 雨 is the character for rain — its strokes spell out a roof with four water drops underneath. Together 下雨 literally reads 'fall-rain', the standard verb for 'to rain'.
下 — horizontal line 一 + mark below
下 is an indicative character: a long horizontal line represents a reference level, and a shorter stroke placed beneath it points to the area below. The original meaning 'below, down' comes directly from this spatial diagram, and it later extended to verbs like 'descend' and 'lower'.
雨 — pictograph: sky 一 + cloud 冂 + four water drops
雨 is a pictograph showing rain falling from a cloud under the sky. The top horizontal stroke represents the sky, the enclosing shape depicts a cloud, and the four small strokes inside are falling raindrops. Its meaning 'rain' has stayed consistent since oracle bone script.