HSK 4 · Education

错误 cuòwù “mistaken” in Chinese

Traditional 錯誤

What 错误 means

  1. mistaken
  2. false
  3. wrong
  4. error
  5. mistake

Measure word 个 gè · 一个错误 yí ge cuòwù

How to say 错误

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale错cuò4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale误wù4th tone, falling

错误 in a sentence

  1. 我可能犯了个错误。

    Wǒ kěnéng fàn le ge cuòwù.

    I may have made a mistake.

    Sentence #1408001 from Tatoeba

  2. 句子里有一个错误。

    Jùzi lǐ yǒu yí ge cuòwù.

    There’s a mistake in the sentence.

    Sentence #2776395 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 老师指出了你的错误。

    Lǎoshī zhǐchū le nǐ de cuòwù.

    The teacher pointed out your mistakes.

    Sentence #2257013 from Tatoeba

How 错误 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
The character 误 (wù) with each of its parts in a different colour
误wùmistake
  • 讠speech form of 言 · yánMeaning part
  • 吴one of several warring states · WúSound part

讠 hints at the meaning (speech); 吴 (Wú) hints at the sound. Compare it with wù.

How to write 错误

错 13 strokes · 误 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 错误

Words with 错

错cuò · wrong不错bùcuò · not bad

Words with 误

误会wùhuì · to misunderstand耽误dānwu · to delay误解wùjiě · to misunderstand误差wùchā · error失误shīwù · mistake

More words: School, Work & Culture

作业zuòyè · school assignment毕业bìyè · graduation博士bóshì · doctorate词语cíyǔ · words and expressions基础jīchǔ · base教授jiàoshòu · professor教育jiàoyù · to educate普通话pǔtōnghuà · Mandarin

FAQs

错误 (cuòwù) means “mistaken” or “false”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it cuòwù: cuò with a 4th tone, then wù 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, 错误 is written 錯誤. The pronunciation is the same.
Use 个 (gè). For example, one mistaken is 一个错误 (yí ge cuòwù).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type cuowu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 错误 from the suggestions. Typing cuowu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
错误 is an HSK 4 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.