HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Family

姐妹 jiěmèi “sisters” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 姐妹 means

  1. sisters
  2. siblings
  3. sister (school, city etc)

How to say 姐妹

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale姐jiě3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale妹mèi4th tone, falling

姐妹 in a sentence

  1. 我的两个姐妹都结婚了。

    Wǒ de liǎng ge jiěmèi dōu jiéhūn le.

    Both of my sisters are married.

    Sentence #346791 from Tatoeba

  2. 几乎没有人认为我们是姐妹。

    Jīhū méiyǒu rén rènwéi wǒmen shì jiěmèi.

    Hardly anyone thinks we’re sisters.

    Sentence #1785961 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我父亲有五个兄弟姐妹。

    Wǒ fùqīn yǒu wǔ ge xiōngdì jiěmèi.

    My father has five siblings.

    Sentence #894386 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 姐妹 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 姐 (jiě) with each of its parts in a different colour
姐jiěolder sister
  • 女woman · nǚMeaning part
  • 且moreover · qiěSound part

女 hints at the meaning (woman); 且 (qiě) hints at the sound. Compare it with jiě.

The character 妹 (mèi) with each of its parts in a different colour
妹mèiyounger sister
  • 女woman · nǚMeaning part
  • 未part of the characterSound part

Memory aidA woman 女, with 未 (wèi) giving the sound: younger sister. Older sister 姐 has 女 too.

How to write 姐妹

姐 8 strokes · 妹 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 姐妹

Words with 姐

小姐xiǎojiě · miss姐姐jiějie · older sister

Words with 妹

妹妹mèimei · younger sister

More words: Family

家人jiārén · family member夫妻fūqī · husband and wife爱人àiren · husband or wife父母fùmǔ · parents

FAQs

姐妹 (jiěmèi) means “sisters” or “siblings”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it jiěmèi: jiě with a 3rd tone, then mèi with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 姐妹 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type jiemei with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 姐妹 from the suggestions. Typing jiemei into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
姐妹 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 5 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.