HSK 6 · Verbs

牵 qiān “to lead (by the hand or a rope)” in Chinese

Traditional 牽

What 牵 means

  1. to lead (by the hand or a rope)
  2. to pull
  3. to lead along
  4. to pull (an animal on a tether)
  5. (bound form) to involve
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to draw in

How to say 牵

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale牵qiān1st tone, high and level

牵 in a sentence

  1. 我可以牵着你的手吗？

    Wǒ kěyǐ qiān zhe nǐ de shǒu ma?

    May I hold your hand?

    Sentence #5099415 from Tatoeba

  2. 这对夫妻手牵手走路。

    Zhè duì fūqī shǒu qiān shǒu zǒulù.

    The couple are walking hand in hand.

    Sentence #895136 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  3. 我们牵过一次手。

    Wǒmen qiānguo yí cì shǒu.

    We held hands once.

    Sentence #5576828 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 牵 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 牵 (qiān) with each of its parts in a different colour
牵qiānto lead along
  • 大big · dà
  • 冖cover · mì
  • 牛cow · niú

How to write 牵

牵 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 牵

Words with 牵

牵扯qiānchě · to involve牵制qiānzhì · to contain

More words: Common Verbs

扑pū · to pounce on铺pū · to spread普及pǔjí · to popularise掐qiā · to pinch牵扯qiānchě · to involve抢救qiǎngjiù · to rescue强迫qiǎngpò · to force迁就qiānjiù · to accommodate

FAQs

牵 (qiān) means “to lead (by the hand or a rope)” or “to pull”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it qiān: qiān with a 1st 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, 牵 is written 牽. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type qian with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 牵 from the suggestions. Typing qian into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
牵 is an HSK 6 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.