HSK 4 · Time

偶尔 ǒu'ěr “occasionally” in Chinese

Said as óuěr

Traditional 偶爾

What 偶尔 means

  1. occasionally
  2. once in a while
  3. sometimes

How to say 偶尔

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale偶ǒu3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale尔ěr3rd tone, dipping

Said as óuěr. When two third tones meet, the first one rises into a second tone. You still write it with two third tones. How tone changes work

偶尔 in a sentence

  1. 他偶尔会来拜访我。

    Tā ǒu'ěr huì lái bàifǎng wǒ.

    He occasionally comes to visit me.

    Sentence #2567430 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我偶尔打网球。

    Wǒ ǒu'ěr dǎ wǎngqiú.

    I play tennis once in a while.

    Sentence #881038 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  3. 他喜欢偶尔去海边。

    Tā xǐhuan ǒu'ěr qù hǎibiān.

    He likes going to the beach now and then.

    Sentence #462082 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 偶尔 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 偶 (ǒu) with each of its parts in a different colour
偶ǒuaccidental
  • 亻person form of 人 · rénMeaning part
  • 禺district · yúSound part

亻 hints at the meaning (person); 禺 (yú) hints at the sound. Compare it with ǒu.

The character 尔 (ěr) with each of its parts in a different colour
尔ěrthus
  • ⺈knife form of 刀 · dāo
  • 小small · xiǎo

How to write 偶尔

偶 11 strokes · 尔 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 偶尔

Words with 偶

偶然ǒurán · incidentally配偶pèi'ǒu · spouse偶像ǒuxiàng · idol

More words: Time

将来jiānglái · in the future节jié · festival礼拜天Lǐbàitiān · Sunday秒miǎo · second (of time)平时píngshí · ordinarily世纪shìjì · century同时tóngshí · at the same time永远yǒngyuǎn · forever

FAQs

偶尔 (ǒu’ěr) means “occasionally” or “once in a while”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it ǒu’ěr: ǒu with a 3rd tone, then ěr with a 3rd tone. In speech it sounds like óuěr. When two third tones meet, the first one rises into a second tone. You still write it with two third tones. 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, 偶尔 is written 偶爾. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ouer with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 偶尔 from the suggestions. Typing ouer into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
偶尔 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.