I frequently mixed up some of these characters myself when I was learning. Most look-alike characters differ by a single stroke. One line is longer, a dot sits somewhere else, or a stroke pokes through where its twin stops short. Once you know which stroke to check, 未 and 末 stop being a coin flip.

They trip people up because of how most of us meet them. A flashcard shows one character on its own, you recognize the overall shape, and you flip the card. That works until the twin turns up. What you stored was "tree with an extra line near the top," and that description fits 未 and 末 equally well. Drilling each card harder doesn't fix it, because the drill never asks you to look at the part that differs.

So this guide puts them side by side. For each set you get the characters, the pinyin, the meaning, the exact difference and a short hook tied to that difference. They're grouped by the kind of difference, because there are only a handful of ways look-alikes differ. Learn those and you know where to look on a pair you've never seen before.

One stroke is longer

未 (wèi, "not yet") and 末 (mò, "end") are both 木, tree, with one extra horizontal line near the top. In 末 the top line is longer than the one below it. In 未 it's shorter. Think of 末 as marking the end of the tree, the tip of the highest branch, so its line reaches all the way out. In 未 that branch hasn't finished growing yet, which is what 未 means. You'll see 未 in 未来 (wèilái, "future") and 末 in 周末 (zhōumò, "weekend").

土 (tǔ, "earth, soil") and 士 (shì, "scholar") are the same three strokes. In 土 the bottom line is the long one. In 士 it's the top line. The ground is wide, so 土 stands on a long base. A scholar keeps his learning up top, so 士 is widest at the head.

人 (rén, "person") and 入 (rù, "enter") are near mirror images, which is why they swap so easily. In 人 the left-falling stroke is the long one. It starts at the top, and the right stroke joins it partway down. In 入 it's the other way around. The right-falling stroke starts at the top, and the left one is short and leans against it. So check which side reaches the top. Left is 人. Right is 入, which you'll see on signs as 入口 (rùkǒu, "entrance"), usually next to 出口 (chūkǒu, "exit").

The shape changes, not the strokes

己 (jǐ, "self"), 已 (yǐ, "already") and 巳 (sì, the sixth of the Earthly Branches) are written with the same strokes. The difference is how far the left vertical climbs toward the top line. In 己 it stops well short, so the top-left corner is open. In 已 it climbs halfway up the gap. In 巳 it reaches the top line and closes the box. There's a traditional rhyme for this, 己开已半巳全封 (jǐ kāi, yǐ bàn, sì quán fēng), "己 open, 已 half, 巳 fully sealed." Of the three, 已 is the one you'll meet constantly, in 已经 (yǐjīng, "already"). 己 turns up in 自己 (zìjǐ, "oneself"). 巳 mostly appears in the traditional calendar.

日 (rì, "sun, day") and 曰 (yuē, "to say") differ in proportion and in one line. 日 is tall and narrow, and its middle line runs from side to side. 曰 is short and wide, and its middle line touches the left side but stops before the right. Picture 曰 as a mouth opened wide, with the tongue inside not quite reaching across. You'll mostly meet 曰 in classical texts, for example as 子曰 (zǐ yuē, "the Master said") at the start of lines in the Analects.

A dot moves

大 (dà, "big"), 太 (tài, "too, very") and 犬 (quǎn, "dog") are the same figure with a dot in three places. 大 has no dot. 太 has one underneath, between the legs. 犬 has one at the top right. 太 is too much, so it's 大 with something extra tacked on below. The dot on 犬 is the dog's ear. 太 is everywhere in speech, as in 太好了 (tài hǎo le, "great"). 犬 is rare as a word, but its side form 犭 is the left half of 狗 (gǒu, "dog") and 猫 (māo, "cat").

王 (wáng, "king"), 玉 (yù, "jade") and 主 (zhǔ, "master, main") work the same way. 王 has no dot. 玉 has one at the bottom right. 主 has one on top. The dot on 玉 is a piece of jade hanging at the king's side. The dot on 主 is a flame on a lamp stand, and the lamp is the main light in the room. One more thing worth knowing: when 玉 sits on the left of a character it drops its dot and looks just like 王, as in 球 (qiú, "ball") and 现 (xiàn, "now"). That 王 is jade, not a king.

A stroke pokes through

天 (tiān, "sky") and 夫 (fū, "man, husband") share two horizontal lines and two legs. In 天 the stroke that forms the left leg begins at the top line. In 夫 it starts higher and pokes up through it. Traditionally, the top line of 夫 is a hairpin pushed through a grown man's hair, so his head sticks out above it. You'll see 夫 in 丈夫 (zhàngfu, "husband").

午 (wǔ, "noon") and 牛 (niú, "cow") are the same pair of horizontals with a vertical down the middle. In 午 the vertical starts at the top line. In 牛 it pokes up above it, and that stub is the cow's horn. 午 is in 中午 (zhōngwǔ, "noon"), and 牛 is in 牛奶 (niúnǎi, "milk").

刀 (dāo, "knife") and 力 (lì, "power") are both two strokes. In 刀 the falling stroke starts at the top line. In 力 it pokes up above, like an arm braced to push. 力 is in 努力 (nǔlì, "to work hard").

Something is added or missing

鸟 (niǎo, "bird") and 乌 (wū, "crow, black") differ by one dot. 鸟 has a short stroke inside the top, which is the bird's eye. 乌 doesn't. A crow is black all over, so you can't see its eye. 乌 is in 乌鸦 (wūyā, "crow") and in 乌龙茶 (wūlóng chá, "oolong tea").

买 (mǎi, "buy") and 卖 (mài, "sell") differ by a 十 on top, and by tone. 卖 has the 十, 买 doesn't. To sell something you have to have more of it than the buyer, so 卖 carries extra on top. Since the two are also third tone and fourth tone, it's worth learning them as a pair from the start.

候 (hòu, "to wait, time") and 侯 (hóu, "marquis") differ by one short vertical stroke. 候 has it, between the 亻 on the left and the rest of the character. 侯 doesn't. When you wait, you lean on a stick, and that short stroke is the stick. 候 is the common one, in 时候 (shíhou, "time, when"). 侯 is mostly a surname or a title, and it's also the right half of 猴 (hóu, "monkey"). A monkey doesn't need a stick, so 猴 has no extra stroke either.

Same frame, different middle

The last set shows why components are worth learning. 辨 (biàn, "to distinguish"), 辩 (biàn, "to debate"), 辫 (biàn, "braid") and 瓣 (bàn, "petal") all share the same frame, 辛 on the left and 辛 on the right. Only the middle changes, and the middle carries the meaning.

辨 has a squeezed form of 刀, the knife. To distinguish things, you cut them apart. 辩 has 讠, speech. A debate is two people talking. 辫 has 纟, silk or thread. A braid is strands woven together. 瓣 has 瓜, melon. A petal, like a segment of a melon, is one piece of a whole.

If you try to memorize those four as four shapes, you'll probably mix them up. Read them as frame plus middle, and the middle tells you which one you're looking at.

A method for any new look-alike pair

The sets above won't be the last ones you meet, so here is the process behind them.

Start by finding what the two characters share. Usually it's most of the character: 木 in 未 and 末, 大 in 太 and 犬, the 辛 frame in 辨 and 辩.

Then name the one difference in words: "top line longer," "dot on top," "pokes through," "extra stroke between." Saying it out loud forces you to locate it, which looking alone doesn't.

Attach the hook to that difference, not to the whole character. The horn on 牛 works because it explains the one stroke 午 doesn't have.

Finally, review the two together. If your flashcards let you, put both characters on one card, or add the twin to the back of each card. When you get one wrong, write both side by side once before moving on, saying the difference as you go.

Where Hanzi Express fits

Hanzi Express teaches characters the way this article reads them. It introduces a component first, then the characters built from it, and spaced repetition brings each one back before you forget it. That won't stop you mixing up 未 and 末 on day one. It does mean that by the time you meet 末, you already know 木, so the only new thing to learn is the line on top. The first three levels are free if you want to try it.

Chinese Characters That Look Alike (and the One Stroke That Tells Them Apart)