HSK 1 · Adjectives

小 xiǎo “small” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 小 means

  1. small
  2. tiny
  3. few
  4. young

How to say 小

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale小xiǎo3rd tone, dipping

小 in a sentence

  1. 我们的教室非常小。

    Wǒmen de jiàoshì fēicháng xiǎo.

    Our classroom is very small.

    Sentence #3378103 from Tatoeba

  2. 我比你小四个月。

    Wǒ bǐ nǐ xiǎo sì ge yuè.

    I am four months younger than you.

    Sentence #382979 from Tatoeba

  3. 这把椅子比较小的。

    Zhè bǎ yǐzi bǐjiào xiǎo de.

    This chair is quite small.

    Sentence #8854478 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 小 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 小 (xiǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
小xiǎosmall
  • 亅hook · jué
  • 八eight · bā

Memory aidThree small strokes, like grains: small.

How to write 小

小 3 strokes

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

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

Words related to 小

Words with 小

小姐xiǎojiě · miss小学xiǎoxué · elementary school小学生xiǎoxuéshēng · primary school student小朋友xiǎopéngyǒu · child小时xiǎoshí · hour从小cóngxiǎo · from childhood小孩儿xiǎoháir · child小时候xiǎoshíhou · in one’s childhood小心xiǎoxīn · be careful小区xiǎoqū · residential estate

More words: Adjectives

好hǎo · good大dà · big多duō · many少shǎo · few冷lěng · cold热rè · hot纵横zònghéng · in all directions棕色zōngsè · brown

FAQs

小 (xiǎo) means “small” or “tiny”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it xiǎo: xiǎo with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 小 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type xiao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 小 from the suggestions. Typing xiao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
小 is an HSK 1 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

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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.