HSK 5 · Verbs

轮流 lúnliú “to alternate” in Chinese

Traditional 輪流

What 轮流 means

  1. to alternate
  2. to take turns

How to say 轮流

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale轮lún2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale流liú2nd tone, rising

轮流 in a sentence

  1. 让我们轮流写吧。

    Ràng wǒmen lúnliú xiě ba.

    Let’s take turns writing.

    Sentence #1878377 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他们会轮流教课。

    Tāmen huì lúnliú jiāokè.

    They’ll be taking turns teaching the class.

    Sentence #5685885 from Tatoeba

  3. 我们轮流开车。

    Wǒmen lúnliú kāichē.

    We took turns driving.

    Sentence #825949 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 轮流 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 轮 (lún) with each of its parts in a different colour
轮lúnwheel; disk; ring
  • 车cart · chēMeaning part
  • 仑logical reasons · lúnSound part

车 hints at the meaning (cart); 仑 (lún) hints at the sound. Compare it with lún.

The character 流 (liú) with each of its parts in a different colour
流liúto flow
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 㐬pennantSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 㐬 () hints at the sound. Compare it with liú.

How to write 轮流

轮 8 strokes · 流 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 轮流

Words with 轮

轮船lúnchuán · steamship轮胎lúntāi · tyre轮廓lúnkuò · outline

Words with 流

交流jiāoliú · to exchange流利liúlì · fluent流行liúxíng · popular流泪liúlèi · to shed tears流传liúchuán · to spread流露liúlù · to reveal流浪liúlàng · to wander一流yìliú · first-class流通liútōng · to circulate潮流cháoliú · trend

More words: Common Verbs

利用lìyòng · to make use of联合liánhé · to combine流传liúchuán · to spread漏lòu · to leak落后luòhòu · to fall behind冒险màoxiǎn · to take risks面对miànduì · to face面临miànlín · to face

FAQs

轮流 (lúnliú) means “to alternate” or “to take turns”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it lúnliú: lún with a 2nd tone, then liú 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, 轮流 is written 輪流. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type lunliu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 轮流 from the suggestions. Typing lunliu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
轮流 is an HSK 5 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.