HSK 2 · Pronouns

女 nǚ “female” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 女 means

  1. female
  2. woman
  3. daughter

How to say 女

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale女nǚ3rd tone, dipping

女 in a sentence

  1. 她是女教师。

    Tā shì nǚ jiàoshī.

    She is a female teacher.

    Sentence #7771928 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. “好”的部首是女。

    “Hǎo” de bùshǒu shì nǚ.

    The radical of the character “好” (good) is 女 (woman).

    Sentence #6900283 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 她是我们的女儿。

    Tā shì wǒmen de nǚ'ér.

    She is our daughter.

    Sentence #12169847 from Tatoeba

How 女 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 女 (nǚ) drawn as one shape
女nǚfemale

女 is a single shape of 3 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidDrawn from a woman kneeling with her arms folded.

How to write 女

女 3 strokes

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

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

Words related to 女

Words with 女

女儿nǚ'ér · daughter女朋友nǚpéngyou · girlfriend女人nǚrén · woman女孩儿nǚháir · girl女生nǚshēng · female student妇女fùnǚ · woman女士nǚshì · lady

More words: People, Body & Health

这个zhège · this one看病kànbìng · to visit a doctor服务员fúwùyuán · waiter男nán · male妻子qīzi · wife哥哥gēge · older brother姐姐jiějie · older sister弟弟dìdi · younger brother

FAQs

女 (nǚ) means “female” or “woman”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it nǚ: nǚ with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 女 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type nu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 女 from the suggestions. Typing nu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
女 is an HSK 2 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

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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.