HSK 2 · Adjectives

红 hóng “red” in Chinese

Traditional 紅

What 红 means

  1. red
  2. popular
  3. bonus

How to say 红

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale红hóng2nd tone, rising

红 in a sentence

  1. 我有一双红鞋子。

    Wǒ yǒu yì shuāng hóng xiézi.

    I have a pair of red shoes.

    Sentence #2672965 from Tatoeba

  2. 我最喜欢红色。

    Wǒ zuì xǐhuan hóngsè.

    Red is my favourite colour.

    Sentence #9955413 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 你脸红了。

    Nǐ liǎn hóng le.

    You’re blushing.

    Sentence #5911651 from Tatoeba

How 红 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 红 (hóng) with each of its parts in a different colour
红hóngred
  • 纟silk form of 糸 · mìMeaning part
  • 工work · gōngSound part

纟 hints at the meaning (silk); 工 (gōng) hints at the sound. Compare it with hóng.

Memory aidSilk 纟 with 工 (gōng) for the sound: red, the colour of dyed silk.

How to write 红

红 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 红

Words with 红

红茶hóngchá · black tea红色hóngsè · red (colour)红绿灯hónglǜdēng · traffic lights西红柿xīhóngshì · tomato分红fēnhóng · to share profits

More words: Adjectives

贵guì · expensive便宜piányi · cheap黑hēi · black白bái · white新xīn · new忙máng · busy错cuò · wrong真zhēn · true

FAQs

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