原

yuán

source, origin, beginning

How to write 原, stroke by stroke

surname Yuan; (Japanese surname) Hara; former; original; primary; raw; level; cause; source

Pictophonetic: semantic 厂 (cliff), phonetic 泉

Made of 厂 + 泉

原因yuán yīncause; origin; root cause; reason
原来yuán láioriginal; former; originally; formerly; at first; so, actually, as it turns out
原谅yuán liàngto excuse; to forgive; to pardon
原本yuán běnoriginally; original
原则yuán zéprinciple; doctrine
原创yuán chuàngto create (an original work); (of a work) original; original creation; original work
原始yuán shǐfirst; original; primitive; original (document etc)
原地yuán dì(in) the original place; the place where one currently is; place of origin; local (product)
草原cǎo yuángrassland; prairie
原理yuán lǐprinciple; theory
原子yuán zǐatom; atomic
复原fù yuánto restore (sth) to (its) former condition; to recover from illness; recovery

把书放回它原来的地方。
bǎ shū fàng huí tā yuán lái de dì fāng 。
Put the book back where it was.
我绝不能原谅她。
wǒ jué bù néng yuán liàng tā 。
I can on no condition forgive her.
你怎么解释你缺席的原因？
nǐ zěn me jiě shì nǐ quē xí de yuán yīn ？
How do you account for your absence?
那违背了我做人的原则。
nà wéi bèi le wǒ zuò rén de yuán zé 。
That runs against my principles.
我们身在原子能时代。
wǒ men shēn zài yuán zǐ néng shí dài 。
We are in the era of atomic energy.