HSK 1 · Common Verbs

有 yǒu “to have” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 有 means

  1. to have
  2. there is
  3. (bound form) having
  4. with
  5. -ful
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • -ed
  • -al (as in 有意 intentional)

How to say 有

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale有yǒu3rd tone, dipping

有 in a sentence

  1. 有什么你想让我买的吗？

    Yǒu shénme nǐ xiǎng ràng wǒ mǎi de ma?

    Is there anything you want me to buy?

    Sentence #9963145 from Tatoeba

  2. 你的电脑有什么问题？

    Nǐ de diànnǎo yǒu shénme wèntí?

    What’s wrong with your computer?

    Sentence #5842674 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 你有要洗的衣服吗？

    Nǐ yǒu yào xǐ de yīfu ma?

    Do you have laundry to do?

    Sentence #6956987 from Tatoeba

How 有 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 有 (yǒu) drawn as one shape
有yǒuto have; there is

有 is a single shape of 6 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidA hand holding a piece of meat 月: to have.

How to write 有

有 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 有

Words with 有

没有méiyǒu · not to have有的yǒude · (there are) some (who are…)有些yǒuxiē · some有点儿yǒudiǎnr · slightly有时yǒushí · sometimes有意思yǒuyìsi · interesting有名yǒumíng · famous只有zhǐyǒu · only有人yǒurén · someone有关yǒuguān · to be related to

More words: Common Verbs

看见kànjiàn · to see没有méiyǒu · not to have是shì · to be下雨xiàyǔ · to rain在zài · to be at去qù · to go来lái · to come看kàn · to look

FAQs

有 (yǒu) means “to have” or “there is”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it yǒu: yǒu with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 有 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type you with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 有 from the suggestions. Typing you into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
有 is an HSK 1 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.