HSK 5 · Adjectives

多余 duōyú “superfluous” in Chinese

Traditional 多餘

What 多余 means

  1. superfluous
  2. unnecessary
  3. surplus

How to say 多余

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale多duō1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale余yú2nd tone, rising

多余 in a sentence

  1. 你有多余的钥匙吗？

    Nǐ yǒu duōyú de yàoshi ma?

    Do you have a spare key?

    Sentence #5576820 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 事实证明了我们的担心是多余的。

    Shìshí zhèngmíng le wǒmen de dānxīn shì duōyú de.

    The facts proved that our worries were unnecessary.

    Sentence #1530408 from Tatoeba

  3. 把你句子中的这个词去掉，因为它是多余的。

    Bǎ nǐ jùzi zhōng de zhè ge cí qùdiào, yīnwèi tā shì duōyú de.

    Delete this word from your sentence, because it’s unnecessary.

    Sentence #8490479 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 多余 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 多 (duō) with each of its parts in a different colour
多duōmany; much; more; a lot of
  • 夕evening · xī
  • 夕evening · xī

Memory aidTwo 夕 shapes stacked up: many.

The character 余 (yú) drawn as one shape
余yúI; me

余 is a single shape of 7 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 多余

多 6 strokes · 余 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 多余

Words with 多

多duō · many多少duōshǎo · how many多么duōme · how好多hǎoduō · a lot of许多xǔduō · many差不多chàbuduō · almost多亏duōkuī · thanks to多元化duōyuánhuà · diversification见多识广jiànduōshíguǎng · well-informed and experienced

Words with 余

业余yèyú · spare-time其余qíyú · the rest

More words: Adjectives

淘气táoqì · naughty调皮tiáopí · naughty独立dúlì · independent独特dútè · unique恶劣èliè · vile发达fādá · well-developed繁荣fánróng · prosperous方fāng · square

FAQs

多余 (duōyú) means “superfluous” or “unnecessary”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it duōyú: duō with a 1st tone, then yú with a 2nd 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, 多余 is written 多餘. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type duoyu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 多余 from the suggestions. Typing duoyu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
多余 is an HSK 5 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.