HSK 1 · Family

人 rén “person” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 人 means

  1. person
  2. people

Measure word 个 gè or 位 wèi · 一个人 yí ge rén

How to say 人

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale人rén2nd tone, rising

人 in a sentence

  1. 你的学校有多少人？

    Nǐ de xuéxiào yǒu duōshǎo rén?

    How many people are in your school?

    Sentence #10966790 from Tatoeba

  2. 没人知道他的名字。

    Méi rén zhīdao tā de míngzi.

    Nobody knows his name.

    Sentence #454307 from Tatoeba

  3. 进商店的人是我妹妹。

    Jìn shāngdiàn de rén shì wǒ mèimei.

    The person going into the shop is my younger sister.

    Sentence #1441759 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 人 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 人 (rén) drawn as one shape
人rénperson; people

人 is a single shape of 2 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidA person walking, seen from the side: two legs.

How to write 人

人 2 strokes

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

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

Words related to 人

Words with 人

家人jiārén · family member男人nánrén · man女人nǚrén · woman别人biéren · other people客人kèrén · guest有人yǒurén · someone人们rénmen · people大人dàren · adult老人lǎorén · old person病人bìngrén · patient

More words: People, Body & Health

爸爸bàba · dad妈妈māma · mum儿子érzi · son女儿nǚ'ér · daughter朋友péngyou · friend医生yīshēng · doctor老师lǎoshī · teacher学生xuésheng · student

FAQs

人 (rén) means “person” or “people”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it rén: rén with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 人 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Use 个 (gè) or 位 (wèi). For example, one person is 一个人 (yí ge rén).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ren with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 人 from the suggestions. Typing ren into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
人 is an HSK 1 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.