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.
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.
朋péngfriend
月moon · yuè
月moon · yuè
Memory aidIn the oldest writing, two strings of shells side by side. Two 月 side by side are easy to picture as two friends.
友yǒufriend
友 is a single shape of 4 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.
Memory aidTwo hands 又 joined: friendship.
How to write 女朋友
女 3 strokes · 朋 8 strokes · 友 4 strokes
Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.
Stroke order chart for 女朋友 (nǚpéngyou). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.
女朋友 (nǚpéngyou) means “girlfriend”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word.
Say it nǚpéngyou: nǚpéngyou. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 女朋友 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type nupengyou with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 女朋友 from the suggestions. Typing nupengyou into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
女朋友 is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 1 word list. It is not on the older HSK 2.0 word lists.
Turn words into conversations
A dictionary gives you the words. A native teacher shows you how to use them. Start with a free 30-minute intro call.
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.
