HSK 3.0 Level 4 · Everyday Verbs

留下 liúxia “to leave behind” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 留下 means

  1. to leave behind
  2. to stay behind
  3. to keep
  4. to remain
  5. not to let (sb) go

How to say 留下

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale留liú2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own下xianeutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

留下 in a sentence

  1. 他在桌子上留下了这本书。

    Tā zài zhuōzi shàng liúxia le zhè běn shū.

    He left the book on the table.

    Sentence #889188 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  2. 一些学生留下了。

    Yìxiē xuésheng liúxia le.

    Some students stayed behind.

    Sentence #10752778 from Tatoeba

  3. 请在下面留下评论。

    Qǐng zài xiàmiàn liúxia pínglùn.

    Please leave a comment below.

    Sentence #13137740 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 留下 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
The character 下 (xià) with each of its parts in a different colour
下xiàdownlight in 留下
  • 一one · yī
  • 卜divination · bǔ

Memory aidA short stroke below the line: down, below.

How to write 留下

留 10 strokes · 下 3 strokes

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

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

Words related to 留下

Words with 留

留学liúxué · study abroad留学生liúxuéshēng · international student留liú · to stay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

Words with 下

下xià · down下午xiàwǔ · afternoon下雨xiàyǔ · to rain下班xiàbān · to finish work下课xiàkè · to finish class一下yíxià · (after a verb) briefly下面xiàmiàn · below下去xiàqù · to go down下来xiàlai · to come down以下yǐxià · below

More words: Everyday Verbs

唱chàng · to sing开车kāichē · to drive a car约yuē · to arrange to meet加入jiārù · to join通tōng · to go through排pái · to line up待dāi · to stay值zhí · to be worth

FAQs

留下 (liúxia) means “to leave behind” or “to stay behind”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 4 word.
Say it liúxia: liú with a 2nd tone, then xia with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 留下 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type liuxia with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 留下 from the suggestions. Typing liuxia into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
留下 is an HSK 3.0 Level 4 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 6 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.