HSK 2 · Adjectives

错 cuò “wrong” in Chinese

Traditional 錯

What 错 means

  1. wrong
  2. mistake
  3. bad
  4. interlocking
  5. complex
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to grind

How to say 错

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale错cuò4th tone, falling

错 in a sentence

  1. 你的回答是错的。

    Nǐ de huídá shì cuò de.

    Your answer is wrong.

    Sentence #1752972 from Tatoeba

  2. 你拿错钥匙了。

    Nǐ ná cuò yàoshi le.

    You’ve taken the wrong key.

    Sentence #1776658 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我知道我做错了。

    Wǒ zhīdao wǒ zuò cuò le.

    I know I did something wrong.

    Sentence #5663534 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 错 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 错 (cuò) with each of its parts in a different colour
错cuòmistake
  • 钅gold form of 金 · jīn
  • 昔past · xī

How to write 错

错 13 strokes

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

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

Words related to 错

Words with 错

不错bùcuò · not bad错误cuòwù · mistaken

More words: Adjectives

白bái · white红hóng · red新xīn · new忙máng · busy真zhēn · true非常fēicháng · extremely最zuì · most晴qíng · sunny

FAQs

错 (cuò) means “wrong” or “mistake”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it cuò: cuò 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, 错 is written 錯. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type cuo with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 错 from the suggestions. Typing cuo into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
错 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.