Radical 丿

4 strokes

clouds (124b) + ten 十 (4) = noon 午

Another way of looking at this character is to see it as “label” plus “dry”. Our rule, for deciding when to use clouds and when to use label, will be: if we can see clouds on the top of a character we will use clouds, otherwise we use label.

上午 (42) shàngwǔ morning

中午 (33) zhōngwǔ noon

下午 (43) xiàwǔ afternoon

The morning clouds go in one direction, the afternoon clouds go in another direction, so when the clouds cross it must be noon. / Teddy whoops with delight, as this means it’s lunchtime.