HSK 3.0 Level 1 · School

学 xué “to learn” in Chinese

Traditional 學

What 学 means

  1. to learn
  2. to study
  3. to imitate
  4. science
  5. -ology

How to say 学

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale学xué2nd tone, rising

学 in a sentence

  1. 你在学什么？

    Nǐ zài xué shénme?

    What are you learning?

    Sentence #10007046 from Tatoeba

  2. 我明年想学汉语。

    Wǒ míngnián xiǎng xué Hànyǔ.

    I want to learn Chinese next year.

    Sentence #333627 from Tatoeba

  3. 他正在学怎么开车。

    Tā zhèngzài xué zěnme kāichē.

    He’s learning to drive.

    Sentence #333901 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 学 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 学 (xué) with each of its parts in a different colour
学xuéto learn
  • ⺍small form of 小 · xiǎo
  • 冖cover · mì
  • 子child · zǐ

Memory aidA roof 冖 over a child 子 at study.

How to write 学

学 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 学

Words with 学

学生xuésheng · student同学tóngxué · classmate学校xuéxiào · school学习xuéxí · to study大学dàxué · university上学shàngxué · to go to school小学xiǎoxué · elementary school中学zhōngxué · middle school大学生dàxuéshēng · university student小学生xiǎoxuéshēng · primary school student

More words: School & Work

下班xiàbān · to finish work下课xiàkè · to finish class小学xiǎoxué · elementary school小学生xiǎoxuéshēng · primary school student中学zhōngxué · middle school中学生zhōngxuéshēng · middle-school student本子běnzi · book词cí · word

FAQs

学 (xué) means “to learn” or “to study”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word.
Say it xué: xué with a 2nd 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, 学 is written 學. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type xue with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 学 from the suggestions. Typing xue into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
学 is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 1 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.