Radical 里

7 strokes

裏 裡

field 田 (156a) + earth 土 (54a) = in 里

Although this looks like “field” plus “earth”, the stroke order shows that it isn’t, really. (The same situation occurred for “exit”, Character 114). In writing the character some books suggest writing the fifth and sixth strokes in the other order.

This character means “in”, and is usually a suffix (i.e. it comes after a noun), where it often loses its tone. There are two variants of the traditional form. a 里 is also an old measure of distance (roughly half a mile).

里边 (41) lǐbiān inside, in

这里 (26) zhèli here

哪里 (99) nǎlǐ where

公里 (119) gōnglǐ kilometer

“See that field with small round humps of earth? — that’s the potato field.” “But I don’t see any potatoes!” “That’s because they’re in the humps!” / Teddy runs to leap on the humps (crying, “Let’s make mashed potatoes!”)