HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Places

北 běi “north” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 北 means

  1. north
  2. (classical) to be defeated

How to say 北

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale北běi3rd tone, dipping

北 in a sentence

  1. 刮的是北风。

    Guā de shì běifēng.

    A north wind is blowing.

    Sentence #2456085 from Tatoeba

  2. 我的家坐北向南。

    Wǒ de jiā zuò běi xiàng nán.

    My house faces south.

    Sentence #365790 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我是在北京学习中文的。

    Wǒ shì zài Běijīng xuéxí Zhōngwén de.

    I study Chinese in Beijing.

    Sentence #844670 from Tatoeba

How 北 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 北 (běi) drawn as one shape
北běinorth

北 is a single shape of 5 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidDrawn from two people sitting back to back; later borrowed for “north”.

How to write 北

北 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 北

Words with 北

北京Běijīng · Beijing北方běifāng · north东北dōngběi · northeast西北xīběi · northwest北极běijí · the North Pole南辕北辙nányuánběizhé · to act in a way that defeats one’s purpose

More words: Places & Getting Around

汽车qìchē · car房子fángzi · house街jiē · street室shì · room南方nánfāng · the south花园huāyuán · garden西方xīfāng · the West园yuán · garden

FAQs

北 (běi) means “north” or “(classical) to be defeated”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it běi: běi with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 北 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type bei with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 北 from the suggestions. Typing bei into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
北 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 4 word list. It is not on the older 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.