HSK 1 · Numbers

二 èr “two” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 二 means

  1. two
  2. 2
  3. (Beijing dialect) stupid

How to say 二

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale二èr4th tone, falling

二 in a sentence

  1. 一加二等于三。

    Yī jiā èr děngyú sān.

    One plus two equals three.

    Sentence #475764 from Tatoeba

  2. 十减二等于八。

    Shí jiǎn èr děngyú bā.

    Subtract two from ten and you have eight.

    Sentence #9084064 from Tatoeba

How 二 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 二 (èr) with each of its parts in a different colour
二èrtwo
  • 一one · yī
  • 一one · yī

Memory aidTwo strokes for two.

How to write 二

二 2 strokes

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

二 (èr) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 二 (èr). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 二

Words with 二

二氧化碳èryǎnghuàtàn · carbon dioxide

More words: Numbers & Money

一yī · one三sān · three四sì · four五wǔ · five六liù · six千qiān · thousand两liǎng · two (of)次cì · times

FAQs

二 (èr) means “two” or “2”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it èr: èr with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 二 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type er with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 二 from the suggestions. Typing er into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
二 is an HSK 1 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.