HSK 5 · Function Words

甲 jiǎ “first (in a sequence)” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 甲 means

  1. first (in a sequence)
  2. A
  3. armour
  4. first of the ten Heavenly Stems 十天干
  5. (used for an unspecified person or thing)
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • first (in a list, as a party to a contract etc)
  • letter “A” or roman “I” in list “A, B, C”, or “I, II, III” etc
  • armour plating
  • shell or carapace

How to say 甲

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale甲jiǎ3rd tone, dipping

甲 in a sentence

  1. 桂林山水甲天下。

    Guìlín shānshuǐ jiǎ tiānxià.

    Guilin’s scenery is the finest under heaven.

    Sentence #760171 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 甲之蜜糖，乙之砒霜。

    Jiǎ zhī mìtáng, yǐ zhī pīshuāng.

    One person’s honey is another’s poison.

    Sentence #5092091 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 甲 also means “nail” or “shell”, as in 指甲 zhǐjia “fingernail”

    她有咬指甲的习惯。

    Tā yǒu yǎo zhǐjia de xíguàn.

    She has a habit of biting her nails.

    Sentence #2411919 from Tatoeba

How 甲 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 甲 (jiǎ) drawn as one shape
甲jiǎfirst of the ten Heavenly Stems 十天干

甲 is a single shape of 5 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 甲

甲 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 甲

Words with 甲

指甲zhǐjia · fingernail

More words: Function Words & Grammar

或许huòxǔ · perhaps忽然hūrán · suddenly基本jīběn · basic急忙jímáng · hastily假如jiǎrú · if简直jiǎnzhí · simply尽快jǐnkuài · as soon as possible尽量jǐnliàng · as much as possible

FAQs

甲 (jiǎ) means “first (in a sequence)” or “A”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it jiǎ: jiǎ with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 甲 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type jia with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 甲 from the suggestions. Typing jia into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
甲 is an HSK 5 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.