HSK 1 · Family

儿子 érzi “son” in Chinese

Traditional 兒子

What 儿子 means

  1. son

How to say 儿子

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale儿ér2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own子zineutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

儿子 in a sentence

  1. 我认识你儿子。

    Wǒ rènshi nǐ érzi.

    I know your son.

    Sentence #10182738 from Tatoeba

  2. 你给你儿子起什么名字？

    Nǐ gěi nǐ érzi qǐ shénme míngzi?

    What did you name your son?

    Sentence #5983655 from Tatoeba

  3. 他儿子不在银行工作。

    Tā érzi bú zài yínháng gōngzuò.

    His son doesn’t work at a bank.

    Sentence #1216108 from Tatoeba

How 儿子 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 儿 (ér) with each of its parts in a different colour
儿érchild
  • 丿slash · piě
  • 乚second (cyclical) form of 乙 · yǐ

Memory aidSimplified from 兒, a child drawn with a big head. Only the legs 儿 are left today.

The character 子 (zi) with each of its parts in a different colour
子zinoun suffix, as in 椅子 “chair”
  • 了clear · le
  • 一one · yī

Memory aidA baby with its arms out and its legs wrapped up.

How to write 儿子

儿 2 strokes · 子 3 strokes

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

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

Words related to 儿子

Words with 儿

女儿nǚ'ér · daughter哪儿nǎr · where这儿zhèr · here那儿nàr · there一点儿yìdiǎnr · a little面条儿miàntiáor · noodles好玩儿hǎowánr · amusing有点儿yǒudiǎnr · slightly男孩儿nánháir · boy女孩儿nǚháir · girl

Words with 子

椅子yǐzi · chair桌子zhuōzi · table杯子bēizi · cup妻子qīzi · wife孩子háizi · child本子běnzi · book子zi · (common noun suffix)裤子kùzi · pants帽子màozi · hat裙子qúnzi · skirt

More words: People, Body & Health

爸爸bàba · dad妈妈māma · mum女儿nǚ'ér · daughter人rén · person朋友péngyou · friend医生yīshēng · doctor注射zhùshè · to inject嘴唇zuǐchún · lip

FAQs

儿子 (érzi) means “son”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it érzi: ér with a 2nd tone, then zi with a neutral 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, 儿子 is written 兒子. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type erzi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 儿子 from the suggestions. Typing erzi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
儿子 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.