HSK 5 · Family

姑娘 gūniang “girl” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 姑娘 means

  1. girl
  2. young woman
  3. young lady
  4. daughter

Measure word 个 gè · 一个姑娘 yí ge gūniang

How to say 姑娘

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale姑gū1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own娘niangneutral tone, light and short

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

姑娘 in a sentence

  1. 在面包房工作的姑娘很可爱。

    Zài miànbāofáng gōngzuò de gūniang hěn kě'ài.

    The girl who works at the bakery is cute.

    Sentence #493938 from Tatoeba

  2. 他娶了一个加拿大姑娘。

    Tā qǔ le yí ge Jiānádà gūniang.

    He married a Canadian girl.

    Sentence #5919520 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  3. 公园里有一个漂亮的黑发姑娘。

    Gōngyuán lǐ yǒu yí ge piàoliang de hēifà gūniang.

    There’s a pretty dark-haired girl in the park.

    Sentence #676214 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 姑娘 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 姑 (gū) with each of its parts in a different colour
姑gūpaternal aunt
  • 女woman · nǚ
  • 古old · gǔ
The character 娘 (niang) with each of its parts in a different colour
娘niangmother
  • 女woman · nǚMeaning part
  • 良good · liángSound part

女 hints at the meaning (woman); 良 (liáng) hints at the sound. Compare it with niang.

How to write 姑娘

姑 8 strokes · 娘 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 姑娘

Words with 姑

姑姑gūgu · paternal aunt姑且gūqiě · for the time being

Words with 娘

新娘xīnniáng · bride

More words: People, Body & Health

对象duìxiàng · target分手fēnshǒu · to break up妇女fùnǚ · woman姑姑gūgu · paternal aunt伙伴huǒbàn · partner交往jiāowǎng · to associate with家庭jiātíng · family家务jiāwù · household duties

FAQs

姑娘 (gūniang) means “girl” or “young woman”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it gūniang: gū with a 1st tone, then niang with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 姑娘 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Use 个 (gè). For example, one girl is 一个姑娘 (yí ge gūniang).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type guniang with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 姑娘 from the suggestions. Typing guniang into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
姑娘 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

A dictionary gives you the words. A native teacher shows you how to use them. Start with a free 30-minute intro call.

Book a free intro call

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.