HSK 2 · Pronouns

妻子 qīzi “wife” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 妻子 means

  1. wife

How to say 妻子

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale妻qī1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own子zineutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

妻子 in a sentence

  1. 这是我的妻子。

    Zhè shì wǒ de qīzi.

    This is my wife.

    Sentence #5640760 from Tatoeba

  2. 我妻子是澳大利亚人。

    Wǒ qīzi shì Àodàlìyà rén.

    My wife is Australian.

    Sentence #6956912 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我妻子正在做饭。

    Wǒ qīzi zhèngzài zuòfàn.

    My wife is cooking right now.

    Sentence #408275 from Tatoeba

How 妻子 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 妻 (qī) with each of its parts in a different colour
妻qīwife
  • 十ten · shí
  • 彐snout · jì
  • 女woman · nǚ
The character 子 (zi) with each of its parts in a different colour
子zinoun suffix, as in 椅子 “chair”
  • 了clear · le
  • 一one · yī

Memory aidA baby with its arms out and its legs wrapped up.

How to write 妻子

妻 8 strokes · 子 3 strokes

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

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

Words related to 妻子

Words with 妻

夫妻fūqī · husband and wife

Words with 子

儿子érzi · son椅子yǐzi · chair桌子zhuōzi · table杯子bēizi · cup孩子háizi · child本子běnzi · book子zi · (common noun suffix)裤子kùzi · pants帽子màozi · hat裙子qúnzi · skirt

More words: People, Body & Health

看病kànbìng · to visit a doctor服务员fúwùyuán · waiter男nán · male女nǚ · female哥哥gēge · older brother姐姐jiějie · older sister弟弟dìdi · younger brother妹妹mèimei · younger sister

FAQs

妻子 (qīzi) means “wife”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it qīzi: qī with a 1st tone, then zi with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 妻子 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type qizi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 妻子 from the suggestions. Typing qizi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
妻子 is an HSK 2 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.