HSK 1 · Family

老师 lǎoshī “teacher” in Chinese

Traditional 老師

What 老师 means

  1. teacher

How to say 老师

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale老lǎo3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale师shī1st tone, high and level

老师 in a sentence

  1. 她是个非常好的老师。

    Tā shì ge fēicháng hǎo de lǎoshī.

    She is a very good teacher.

    Sentence #512495 from Tatoeba

  2. 谁是你的汉语老师？

    Shéi shì nǐ de Hànyǔ lǎoshī?

    Who is your Chinese teacher?

    Sentence #333591 from Tatoeba

  3. 我知道你是老师。

    Wǒ zhīdao nǐ shì lǎoshī.

    I know you’re a teacher.

    Sentence #1021010 from Tatoeba

How 老师 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 老 (lǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
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.

The character 师 (shī) with each of its parts in a different colour
师shīteacher
  • 刂knife form of 刀 · dāo
  • 帀to rotate

How to write 老师

老 6 strokes · 师 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 老师

Words with 老

老lǎo · old老人lǎorén · old person老虎lǎohǔ · tiger老婆lǎopo · wife (informal)老实lǎoshi · honest老板lǎobǎn · boss老鼠lǎoshǔ · rat老百姓lǎobǎixìng · ordinary people衰老shuāilǎo · to grow old

Words with 师

律师lǜshī · lawyer师傅shīfu · master工程师gōngchéngshī · engineer师范shīfàn · teacher training

More words: People, Body & Health

女儿nǚ'ér · daughter人rén · person朋友péngyou · friend医生yīshēng · doctor学生xuésheng · student先生xiānsheng · mr小姐xiǎojiě · miss同学tóngxué · classmate

FAQs

老师 (lǎoshī) means “teacher”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it lǎoshī: lǎo with a 3rd tone, then shī with a 1st 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, 老师 is written 老師. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type laoshi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 老师 from the suggestions. Typing laoshi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
老师 is an HSK 1 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.