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.
老lǎoprefix used before the surname of
耂old form of 老 · lǎo
匕spoon · bǐ
Memory aidDrawn from an old person with long hair and a walking stick.
人rénperson; people
人 is a single shape of 2 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.
Memory aidA person walking, seen from the side: two legs.
How to write 老人
老 6 strokes · 人 2 strokes
Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.
Stroke order chart for 老人 (lǎorén). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.
老人 (lǎorén) means “old person” or “the elderly”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it lǎorén: lǎo with a 3rd tone, then rén with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 老人 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type laoren with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 老人 from the suggestions. Typing laoren into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
老人 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 4 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.
老lǎo3rd tone, dipping
人rén2nd tone, rising
