HSK 3 · Verbs

哭 kū “cry” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 哭 means

  1. cry
  2. weep

How to say 哭

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale哭kū1st tone, high and level

哭 in a sentence

  1. 告诉我她为什么哭。

    Gàosu wǒ tā wèishénme kū.

    Tell me why she’s crying.

    Sentence #399266 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 婴儿终于不哭了。

    Yīng'ér zhōngyú bù kū le.

    The baby has finally stopped crying.

    Sentence #8589148 from Tatoeba

  3. 大家都哭了，就我没哭。

    Dàjiā dōu kū le, jiù wǒ méi kū.

    Everyone cried except me.

    Sentence #11937827 from Tatoeba

How 哭 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 哭 (kū) with each of its parts in a different colour
哭kūto cry; to weep
  • 口mouth · kǒu
  • 口mouth · kǒu
  • 犬dog · quǎn

How to write 哭

哭 10 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

哭 (kū) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 哭 (kū). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 哭

Words with 哭

哭泣kūqì · to weep

More words: Common Verbs

结婚jiéhūn · get married结束jiéshù · to end借jiè · lend经过jīngguò · to pass离开líkāi · leave留学liúxué · study abroad拿ná · carry in your hand努力nǔlì · to work hard

In the Chinese zodiac

狗gǒu · Year of the Dog

哭 has 犬 (dog) at the bottom.

FAQs

哭 (kū) means “cry” or “weep”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it kū: kū with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 哭 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ku with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 哭 from the suggestions. Typing ku into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
哭 is an HSK 3 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.