HSK 3.0 Level 3 · School

课文 kèwén “text (of a lesson)” in Chinese

Traditional 課文

What 课文 means

  1. text (of a lesson)
  2. text

Measure word 篇 piān · 一篇课文 yì piān kèwén

How to say 课文

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale课kè4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale文wén2nd tone, rising

课文 in a sentence

  1. 请你读一下课文。

    Qǐng nǐ dú yíxià kèwén.

    Please read the text.

    Sentence #7817194 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我最讨厌背诵课文了。

    Wǒ zuì tǎoyàn bèisòng kèwén le.

    What I hate most of all is having to recite texts from memory.

    Sentence #1750554 from Tatoeba

How 课文 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 课 (kè) with each of its parts in a different colour
课kèsubject
  • 讠speech form of 言 · yánMeaning part
  • 果fruit · guǒSound part

讠 hints at the meaning (speech); 果 (guǒ) hints at the sound. Compare it with kè.

The character 文 (wén) with each of its parts in a different colour
文wénlanguage
  • 亠lid · tóu
  • 乂to govern · yì

Memory aidDrawn from a person with a pattern on the chest. It came to mean writing and culture.

How to write 课文

课 10 strokes · 文 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 课文

Words with 课

上课shàngkè · to go to class下课xiàkè · to finish class课kè · class课本kèběn · textbook课程kèchéng · course课题kètí · research topic旷课kuàngkè · to skip class

Words with 文

中文Zhōngwén · Chinese language文化wénhuà · culture文章wénzhāng · article文明wénmíng · civilised论文lùnwén · paper文字wénzì · writing作文zuòwén · to write an essay文件wénjiàn · document文学wénxué · literature文具wénjù · stationery (pens

More words: School & Work

大学dàxué · university大学生dàxuéshēng · university student读书dúshū · to read a book汉字hànzì · Chinese character班级bānjí · class (of students)课本kèběn · textbook字典zìdiǎn · dictionary (of characters)留学生liúxuéshēng · international student

FAQs

课文 (kèwén) means “text (of a lesson)” or “text”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it kèwén: kè with a 4th tone, then wén 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, 课文 is written 課文. The pronunciation is the same.
Use 篇 (piān). For example, one text (of a lesson) is 一篇课文 (yì piān kèwén).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type kewen with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 课文 from the suggestions. Typing kewen into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
课文 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.