HSK 1 · Common Verbs

爱 ài “to love” in Chinese

Traditional 愛

What 爱 means

  1. to love
  2. to be fond of
  3. to like
  4. affection
  5. to be inclined (to do sth)
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to tend to (happen)

How to say 爱

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale爱ài4th tone, falling

爱 in a sentence

  1. 我爱我的女儿。

    Wǒ ài wǒ de nǚ'ér.

    I love my daughter.

    Sentence #1890391 from Tatoeba

  2. 爱 + verb: to love doing, to like to

    你爱吃什么水果？

    Nǐ ài chī shénme shuǐguǒ?

    What kind of fruit do you like?

    Sentence #11837677 from Tatoeba

  3. 认识他的人都爱他。

    Rènshi tā de rén dōu ài tā.

    He was loved by everyone that knew him.

    Sentence #777582 from Tatoeba

How 爱 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 爱 (ài) with each of its parts in a different colour
爱àito love; to be fond of; to like
  • 爫claw form of 爪 · zhǎo
  • 冖cover · mì
  • 友friend · yǒu

Memory aidA hand 爫 bringing a friend 友 under a cover 冖: love.

How to write 爱

爱 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 爱

Words with 爱

可爱kě'ài · cute爱好àihào · hobby爱人àiren · husband or wife喜爱xǐ'ài · to like爱情àiqíng · romance恋爱liàn'ài · romantic love爱护àihù · to cherish爱惜àixī · to cherish亲爱qīn'ài · dear爱心àixīn · compassion

More words: Common Verbs

学习xuéxí · to study请qǐng · please能néng · can会huì · can坐zuò · to sit打篮球dǎlánqiú · to play basketball懂dǒng · to understand过guò · to pass

FAQs

爱 (ài) means “to love” or “to be fond of”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it ài: ài with a 4th 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, 爱 is written 愛. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 爱 from the suggestions. Typing ai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
爱 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.