


Click one of the search results to load the list. Find a vocab list your teacher created by entering the list name into the search box and hit the Search button.Remember, your handwriting doesn’t have to be beautiful, but using the correct stroke order is important. Write the three characters by hand, following the stroke order shown in the video: 二,工,全. For example, in the character 二 èr (“two”), the correct Chinese stroke order requires you to draw the top stroke first. Rule #1 is simple: write Chinese characters from top to bottom. Here at Mandarin Blueprint, we prefer the simplified forms taught in mainland China. There are minor discrepancies in stroke order between the simplified characters, the traditional Chinese characters used in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the Korean and Japanese forms. Note that some stroke orders vary depending on the region.

Most characters are formed from eight basic strokes, all demonstrated in the Chinese character 永 yǒng, meaning “forever.” Learning these eight fundamental strokes will speed up your Chinese language study and accelerate your reading. After a while, you’ll no longer need to think about the rules - writing Chinese characters this way will seem natural. With a bit of practice, however, they’ll soon become intuitive. When starting, some rules may seem complicated, even contradictory. Use a pen - or, more fun, a brush, and ink - to write the characters along with the videos. Consider these instructions as guidelines for the basic Chinese characters’ stroke order rather than universal rules of Chinese writing. Writing characters one by one in a long list is a terrible way to learn Chinese, particularly for non-native learners.
HANZI STROKE ORDER HOW TO
Remember, the point is not to learn how to write specific characters by hand. On the flip side, get the stroke order right, and the app will recognize the character instantly, no matter how terrible your writing is. But if your stroke order is all over the place, the app will struggle to distinguish between similar characters. The easiest way to look up an unfamiliar character in popular digital dictionaries such as Pleco is to draw it with your finger. And even for students who prefer using pinyin input, it never hurts to have another option. Writing characters by hand will enhance your memorization and retention, helping you to learn Chinese characters as soon as possible.

So, why does stroke order matter in Chinese?Įven if you mainly use a smartphone or laptop to input Chinese text, handwriting characters is useful for developing muscle memory. Most young people in China today use pinyin to input Chinese characters. With half your life tied to your cellphone and the rest connected to the computer, you barely write in your native language anymore, let alone in Chinese. You don’t expect to be writing Chinese anytime soon. Inside or upper-right dots last Why should I learn Chinese stroke order?
