HSK 3 · Education, Work

故事 gùshi “story” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 故事 means

  1. story
  2. tale
  3. narrative

How to say 故事

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale故gù4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own事shineutral tone, light and short

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

故事 in a sentence

  1. 他讲了一个有趣的故事。

    Tā jiǎng le yí ge yǒuqù de gùshi.

    He told an interesting story.

    Sentence #437947 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 给我讲个好故事。

    Gěi wǒ jiǎng ge hǎo gùshi.

    Tell me a good story.

    Sentence #11512544 from Tatoeba

  3. 那个故事是我爷爷告诉我的。

    Nà ge gùshi shì wǒ yéye gàosu wǒ de.

    My grandpa told me that story.

    Sentence #844691 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 故事 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 故 (gù) with each of its parts in a different colour
故gùhappening
  • 古old · gǔSound part
  • 攵tap form of 攴 · pūMeaning part

攵 hints at the meaning (tap); 古 (gǔ) hints at the sound. Compare it with gù.

The character 事 (shì) with each of its parts in a different colour
事shìmatterlight in 故事
  • 一one · yī
  • 口mouth · kǒu
  • 彐snout · jì
  • 亅hook · jué

How to write 故事

故 9 strokes · 事 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 故事

Words with 故

故意gùyì · deliberately故乡gùxiāng · hometown事故shìgù · accident故障gùzhàng · fault变故biàngù · misfortune缘故yuángù · reason

Words with 事

事shì · matter没事méishì · it’s nothing事情shìqing · matter同事tóngshì · colleague从事cóngshì · to engage in人事rénshì · personnel军事jūnshì · military affairs事实shìshí · fact事物shìwù · thing事先shìxiān · in advance

More words: School, Work & Culture

办法bànfǎ · method笔记本bǐjìběn · notebook成绩chéngjì · achievement词典cídiǎn · dictionary黑板hēibǎn · blackboard会议huìyì · meeting节目jiémù · programme经理jīnglǐ · manager

FAQs

故事 (gùshi) means “story” or “tale”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it gùshi: gù with a 4th tone, then shi with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 故事 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type gushi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 故事 from the suggestions. Typing gushi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
故事 is an HSK 3 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.