HSK 2 · Common Verbs

游泳 yóuyǒng “to swim” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 游泳 means

  1. to swim
  2. swimming

How to say 游泳

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale游yóu2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale泳yǒng3rd tone, dipping

游泳 in a sentence

  1. 下午一起去游泳吧。

    Xiàwǔ yìqǐ qù yóuyǒng ba.

    Let’s go swimming together this afternoon.

    Sentence #337224 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 你喜欢游泳吗？

    Nǐ xǐhuan yóuyǒng ma?

    Do you like swimming?

    Sentence #5072418 from Tatoeba

  3. 你什么时候学会游泳的？

    Nǐ shénme shíhou xuéhuì yóuyǒng de?

    When did you learn to swim?

    Sentence #621068 from Tatoeba

How 游泳 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 游 (yóu) with each of its parts in a different colour
游yóuto swim
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐ
  • 斿to swim · yóu

Memory aidWater 氵 gives the meaning: to swim, and from there to travel around.

The character 泳 (yǒng) with each of its parts in a different colour
泳yǒngswimming
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 永long · yǒngSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 永 (yǒng) hints at the sound. Compare it with yǒng.

How to write 游泳

游 12 strokes · 泳 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 游泳

Words with 游

游yóu · to swim旅游lǚyóu · to travel游戏yóuxì · game游客yóukè · tourist导游dǎoyóu · tour guide游览yóulǎn · to go sightseeing上游shàngyóu · upper reaches (of a river)

More words: Common Verbs

笑xiào · to laugh跳舞tiàowǔ · to dance唱歌chànggē · to sing旅游lǚyóu · to travel完wán · to finish准备zhǔnbèi · to prepare知道zhīdao · to know (a fact)觉得juéde · to feel

FAQs

游泳 (yóuyǒng) means “to swim” or “swimming”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it yóuyǒng: yóu with a 2nd tone, then yǒng with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 游泳 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type youyong with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 游泳 from the suggestions. Typing youyong into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
游泳 is an HSK 2 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.