HSK 4 · Verbs

留 liú “to stay” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 留 means

  1. to stay
  2. to keep
  3. to leave (behind)
  4. to leave (a message etc)
  5. to retain
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to remain
  • to preserve

How to say 留

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale留liú2nd tone, rising

留 in a sentence

  1. 我打算留在城市里。

    Wǒ dǎsuàn liú zài chéngshì lǐ.

    I plan to stay in the city.

    Sentence #429453 from Tatoeba

  2. 你留着它好了。

    Nǐ liú zhe tā hǎo le.

    You can keep it.

    Sentence #11243450 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 她留了很多钱给她儿子。

    Tā liú le hěn duō qián gěi tā érzi.

    She left her son a lot of money.

    Sentence #791534 from Tatoeba

How 留 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 留 (liú) with each of its parts in a different colour
留liúto leave
  • 卯part of the character
  • 田field · tián

How to write 留

留 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 留

Words with 留

留学liúxué · study abroad留学生liúxuéshēng · international student留下liúxia · to leave behind保留bǎoliú · to keep留神liúshén · to be careful残留cánliú · to remain留念liúniàn · to keep as a memento遗留yíliú · to be left over留恋liúliàn · to be reluctant to leave拘留jūliú · to detain

More words: Common Verbs

来自láizì · to come from (a place)浪费làngfèi · to waste理发lǐfà · to get a haircut连lián · even (连…都/也)免费miǎnfèi · free (of charge)迷路mílù · to lose the way弄nòng · to do排队páiduì · to line up

FAQs

留 (liú) means “to stay” or “to keep”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it liú: liú with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 留 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type liu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 留 from the suggestions. Typing liu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
留 is an HSK 4 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.