HSK 5 · Places

胡同 hútòng “lane” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 胡同 means

  1. lane
  2. alley

Measure word 条 tiáo · 一条胡同 yì tiáo hútòng

How to say 胡同

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale胡hú2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale同tòng4th tone, falling

胡同 in a sentence

  1. 我家后面有条胡同。

    Wǒ jiā hòumiàn yǒu tiáo hútòng.

    There’s an alley behind my house.

    Sentence #9176169 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 胡同 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 胡 (hú) with each of its parts in a different colour
胡húnon-Han people, esp. from central Asia
  • 古old · gǔSound part
  • ⺼meat form of 肉 · ròuMeaning part

⺼ hints at the meaning (meat); 古 (gǔ) hints at the sound. Compare it with hú.

The character 同 (tóng) with each of its parts in a different colour
同tònglike
  • 凡any · fán
  • 口mouth · kǒu

Memory aidPicture everyone 凡 speaking with one mouth 口: the same, together.

How to write 胡同

胡 9 strokes · 同 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 胡同

Words with 胡

胡说húshuō · to talk nonsense胡须húxū · beard胡乱húluàn · carelessly

Words with 同

同学tóngxué · classmate同事tóngshì · colleague同意tóngyì · agree不同bùtóng · different同时tóngshí · at the same time相同xiāngtóng · the same同情tóngqíng · to sympathise with共同gòngtóng · common同样tóngyàng · likewise合同hétong · (business) contract

More words: Places & Geography

隔壁gébì · next door工厂gōngchǎng · factory公寓gōngyù · apartment building广场guǎngchǎng · public square家乡jiāxiāng · hometown建筑jiànzhù · to construct酒吧jiǔbā · bar名胜古迹míngshènggǔjì · famous sights and historic sites

FAQs

胡同 (hútòng) means “lane” or “alley”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it hútòng: hú with a 2nd tone, then tòng with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 胡同 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Use 条 (tiáo). For example, one lane is 一条胡同 (yì tiáo hútòng).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type hutong with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 胡同 from the suggestions. Typing hutong into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
胡同 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.