HSK 2 · Pronouns

孩子 háizi “child” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 孩子 means

  1. child

How to say 孩子

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale孩hái2nd 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

孩子 in a sentence

  1. 他结婚了，而且有三个孩子。

    Tā jiéhūn le, érqiě yǒu sān ge háizi.

    He’s married and has three children.

    Sentence #1175836 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 谁照顾孩子？

    Shéi zhàogu háizi?

    Who looks after the children?

    Sentence #410898 from Tatoeba

  3. 孩子感冒了。

    Háizi gǎnmào le.

    The child caught a cold.

    Sentence #5578208 from Tatoeba

How 孩子 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 孩 (hái) with each of its parts in a different colour
孩háichild
  • 子child · zǐMeaning part
  • 亥part of the characterSound part

Memory aidChild 子 with 亥 (hài) for the sound: a child.

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 孩子

孩 9 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.

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

Words related to 孩子

Words with 孩

男孩儿nánháir · boy女孩儿nǚháir · girl小孩儿xiǎoháir · child

Words with 子

儿子érzi · son椅子yǐzi · chair桌子zhuōzi · table杯子bēizi · cup妻子qīzi · wife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

哥哥gēge · older brother姐姐jiějie · older sister弟弟dìdi · younger brother妹妹mèimei · younger sister姓xìng · surname丈夫zhàngfu · husband生病shēngbìng · to get sick眼睛yǎnjing · eye

FAQs

孩子 (háizi) means “child”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it háizi: hái 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.
Yes. 孩子 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type haizi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 孩子 from the suggestions. Typing haizi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
孩子 is an HSK 2 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.