HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Nature, Animals

河 hé “river” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 河 means

  1. river
  2. (bound form) the Yellow River
  3. (bound form) the Milky Way
  4. (bound form) (on restaurant menus) rice noodles 河粉

How to say 河

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale河hé2nd tone, rising

河 in a sentence

  1. 她的家在河对岸。

    Tā de jiā zài hé duì'àn.

    Her house is across the river.

    Sentence #1493978 from Tatoeba

  2. 你看到那条河了吗？

    Nǐ kàndào nà tiáo hé le ma?

    Have you seen that river?

    Sentence #3031872 from Tatoeba

  3. 我昨天去河里游泳了。

    Wǒ zuótiān qù hé lǐ yóuyǒng le.

    I went swimming in the river yesterday.

    Sentence #335679 from Tatoeba

How 河 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 河 (hé) with each of its parts in a different colour
河hériver 条,道)
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 可may · kěSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 可 (kě) hints at the sound. Compare it with hé.

How to write 河

河 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 河

Words with 河

黄河huánghé · Yellow River

More words: Nature, Animals & Weather

山shān · mountain牛niú · cow风fēng · wind冰bīng · ice羊yáng · sheep草地cǎodì · lawn开花kāihuā · to bloom大熊猫dàxióngmāo · giant panda

FAQs

河 (hé) means “river” or “(bound form) the Yellow River”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it hé: hé with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 河 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type he with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 河 from the suggestions. Typing he into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
河 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.