HSK 3 · Adjectives

差 chà “differ from” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 差 means

  1. differ from
  2. fall short of
  3. poor
  4. inferior
  5. different
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • wrong
  • mistaken
  • to fall short
  • to lack
  • not up to standard

How to say 差

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale差chà4th tone, falling

差 in a sentence

  1. 中国菜不比法国菜差。

    Zhōngguó cài bù bǐ Fǎguó cài chà.

    Chinese food is just as good as French food.

    Sentence #4282851 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他们差六岁。

    Tāmen chà liù suì.

    They’re six years apart in age.

    Sentence #519938 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 情况一天比一天差。

    Qíngkuàng yì tiān bǐ yì tiān chà.

    Things are getting worse by the day.

    Sentence #332723 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 差 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 差 (chà) with each of its parts in a different colour
差chàdifferent
  • 羊sheep · yáng
  • 工work · gōng

How to write 差

差 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 差

Words with 差

出差chūchāi · to go on an official or business trip差不多chàbuduō · almost时差shíchā · time difference差距chājù · gap误差wùchā · error差别chābié · difference偏差piānchā · deviation相差xiāngchà · to differ

More words: Adjectives

没意思méiyìsi · boring有意思yǒuyìsi · interesting矮ǎi · short安静ānjìng · quiet聪明cōngming · intelligent短duǎn · short in length方便fāngbiàn · convenient干净gānjìng · clean

FAQs

差 (chà) means “differ from” or “fall short of”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it chà: chà with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 差 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type cha with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 差 from the suggestions. Typing cha into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
差 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.