HSK 3.0 Level 4 · Everyday Verbs

活 huó “to live” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 活 means

  1. to live
  2. alive
  3. work (job)
  4. living
  5. work
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • workmanship

How to say 活

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale活huó2nd tone, rising

活 in a sentence

  1. 她活了很久。

    Tā huó le hěn jiǔ.

    She lived for a long time.

    Sentence #333957 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 没有水你无法活

    Méiyǒu shuǐ nǐ wúfǎ huó

    You can’t live without water.

    Sentence #3521163 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 活 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 活 (huó) with each of its parts in a different colour
活huóto live
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 舌tongue · shéSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 舌 (shé) hints at the sound. Compare it with huó.

How to write 活

活 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 活

Words with 活

活动huódòng · activity生活shēnghuó · to live活泼huópo · lively活跃huóyuè · active灵活línghuó · flexible干活儿gànhuór · to work活该huógāi · serves (someone) right快活kuàihuo · happy复活fùhuó · to come back to life活力huólì · vitality

More words: Everyday Verbs

关机guānjī · to turn off (a device)开机kāijī · to switch on (a device)无法wúfǎ · to be unable to管guǎn · to manage定dìng · to decide按àn · to press入rù · to enter约yuē · to arrange to meet

FAQs

活 (huó) means “to live” or “alive”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 4 word.
Say it huó: huó with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 活 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type huo with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 活 from the suggestions. Typing huo into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
活 is an HSK 3.0 Level 4 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 6 word list. It is not on the older 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.