HSK 5 · Nature

老鼠 lǎoshǔ “rat” in Chinese

Said as láoshǔ

Same in Traditional

What 老鼠 means

  1. rat
  2. mouse

How to say 老鼠

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale老lǎo3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale鼠shǔ3rd tone, dipping

Said as láoshǔ. When two third tones meet, the first one rises into a second tone. You still write it with two third tones. How tone changes work

老鼠 in a sentence

  1. 这只猫不抓老鼠。

    Zhè zhī māo bù zhuā lǎoshǔ.

    This cat doesn’t catch mice.

    Sentence #8500215 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 桌子下有老鼠。

    Zhuōzi xià yǒu lǎoshǔ.

    There is a mouse under the table.

    Sentence #13971953 from Tatoeba

  3. 老鼠是胆小的生物。

    Lǎoshǔ shì dǎnxiǎo de shēngwù.

    Mice are timid creatures.

    Sentence #8795175 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 老鼠 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 老 (lǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
老lǎoprefix used before the surname of
  • 耂old form of 老 · lǎo
  • 匕spoon · bǐ

Memory aidDrawn from an old person with long hair and a walking stick.

The character 鼠 (shǔ) drawn as one shape
鼠shǔrat; mouse

鼠 is a single shape of 13 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 老鼠

老 6 strokes · 鼠 13 strokes

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

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

Words related to 老鼠

Words with 老

老师lǎoshī · teacher老lǎo · old老人lǎorén · old person老虎lǎohǔ · tiger老婆lǎopo · wife (informal)老实lǎoshi · honest老板lǎobǎn · boss老百姓lǎobǎixìng · ordinary people衰老shuāilǎo · to grow old

Words with 鼠

鼠标shǔbiāo · mouse (computing)

More words: Nature & Environment

风景fēngjǐng · scenery猴子hóuzi · monkey蝴蝶húdié · butterfly昆虫kūnchóng · insect龙lóng · dragon陆地lùdì · dry land (as opposed to the sea)煤炭méitàn · coal蜜蜂mìfēng · bee

FAQs

老鼠 (lǎoshǔ) means “rat” or “mouse”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it lǎoshǔ: lǎo with a 3rd tone, then shǔ with a 3rd tone. In speech it sounds like láoshǔ. When two third tones meet, the first one rises into a second tone. You still write it with two third tones. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 老鼠 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type laoshu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 老鼠 from the suggestions. Typing laoshu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
老鼠 is an HSK 5 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.