HSK 6 · Nature

鸽子 gēzi “pigeon” in Chinese

Traditional 鴿子

What 鸽子 means

  1. pigeon
  2. dove
  3. various birds of the family Columbidae

How to say 鸽子

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale鸽gē1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own子zineutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

鸽子 in a sentence

  1. 这些鸽子不怕人，能落在人的肩膀上。

    Zhèxiē gēzi bú pà rén, néng luò zài rén de jiānbǎng shàng.

    These pigeons aren’t afraid of people and will land on their shoulders.

    Sentence #1584123 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他的实验用了鸽子。

    Tā de shíyàn yòng le gēzi.

    He used pigeons in his experiment.

    Sentence #9467049 from Tatoeba

  3. 放鸽子 also means “to stand someone up”

    他放我鸽子；我等了他一整晚！

    Tā fàng wǒ gēzi; wǒ děng le tā yì zhěng wǎn!

    He stood me up – I waited for him all evening!

    Sentence #827487 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 鸽子 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 鸽 (gē) with each of its parts in a different colour
鸽gēpigeon; dove
  • 合to combine · gěSound part
  • 鸟bird · diǎoMeaning part

鸟 hints at the meaning (bird); 合 (gě) hints at the sound. Compare it with gē.

The character 子 (zi) with each of its parts in a different colour
子zinoun suffix, as in 椅子 “chair”
  • 了clear · le
  • 一one · yī

Memory aidA baby with its arms out and its legs wrapped up.

How to write 鸽子

鸽 11 strokes · 子 3 strokes

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

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

Words related to 鸽子

Words with 子

儿子érzi · son椅子yǐzi · chair桌子zhuōzi · table杯子bēizi · cup妻子qīzi · wife孩子háizi · child本子běnzi · book子zi · (common noun suffix)裤子kùzi · pants帽子màozi · hat

More words: Nature & Environment

丰收fēngshōu · bumper harvest腐烂fǔlàn · to rot干旱gānhàn · drought耕地gēngdì · arable land灌溉guàngài · to irrigate光芒guāngmáng · rays of light洪水hóngshuǐ · flood花瓣huābàn · petal

FAQs

鸽子 (gēzi) means “pigeon” or “dove”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it gēzi: gē with a 1st tone, then zi with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 鸽子 is written 鴿子. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type gezi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 鸽子 from the suggestions. Typing gezi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
鸽子 is an HSK 6 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.