How to Write Chinese Characters

Strokes

Strokes are used to form Chinese characters. A horizontal stroke is written from the left to the right and a vertical stroke is written from the top to the bottom. Some of the single strokes are in more complicated forms. (See the descriptions below) Learning the rules of writing Chinese characters is essential to beginners. By watching the animations on this page and practising them on a piece of paper will enable you to learn Chinese characters more quickly. All the materials on this page can help you to remember more Chinese words; to count the number of strokes correctly when using a Chinese dictionary and to read Chinese people’s hand writing.

Please click on the following links to view the animated strokes. The words on the bottom-left of the animation frames indicate the directions of strokes.

Basic single strokes

Dot Horizontal line Vertical line Slanting line to the left Slanting line to the right Vertical line with a hook to the left Vertical line with a hook to the right
Horizontal and vertical line Vertical and horizon line Vertical line and a loop single loop Double loops Vertical line with a slanting line to the right Slanting line upwards

Radicals

Chinese dictionaries have indexes of radicals (部首 bùshŏu section header), under which Chinese words are listed. Many radicals are Chinese characters, but some of them are merely components of characters with "meanings". The following list is of the commonly used "meaning-bearing” radicals. (Also see Wiktionary) Click on the following links to see how the radicals are written. The pop-up windows give examples of characters that contain the relevant radicals. Click here for more information on the positions of the radicals in characters.

Radicals on the upper part of characters

Dot

One

Dot and line

丿

Slash

Hat

Dot and hat

Grass

Old

Cave

 

 

Radicals on the left

Speech

  

Child

Spirit

Silk

      

Hand

Person

Walking slowly

    

Ice

Water

Plenty

    

Dog

   

Heart

  

Food

  

Gold /metal

Clothes

Frame

Badger

  

Ox

 

Radicals on the right

Bristle

  

Knife

  

City

  

Seal

     

Hit

Radicals in the middle

Line

Hook

Sprout

Radicals on the lower part of characters

  

Fire

Joining hands

Partly and completely enclosed radicals

Border Basket Receptacle Wrapping Enclosure Moving on Following Going Illness

Tiger

Radicals on the upper or lower part of characters

Bolt of cloth

Snout

Private

 

Click here for more exercises on Chinese characters