HSK 5 · Family

人生 rénshēng “life (one’s time on earth)” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 人生 means

  1. life (one’s time on earth)

How to say 人生

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale人rén2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale生shēng1st tone, high and level

人生 in a sentence

  1. 我对我的人生很满意。

    Wǒ duì wǒ de rénshēng hěn mǎnyì.

    I’m very happy with my life.

    Sentence #5951861 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 人生是不公平的,是吧?

    Rénshēng shì bù gōngpíng de, shì ba?

    Life isn’t fair, is it?

    Sentence #9972801 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 他跟我讲了他的人生故事。

    Tā gēn wǒ jiǎng le tā de rénshēng gùshi.

    He told me his life story.

    Sentence #1450413 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 人生 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.

The character 生 (shēng) drawn as one shape
生shēngto grow; to give birth; to produce

生 is a single shape of 5 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidA shoot growing up out of the soil 土: to grow, to be born.

How to write 人生

人 2 strokes · 生 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 人生

Words with 人

Words with 生

More words: People, Body & Health

FAQs

人生 (rénshēng) means “life (one’s time on earth)”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it rénshēng: rén with a 2nd tone, then shēng with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 人生 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type rensheng with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 人生 from the suggestions. Typing rensheng into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
人生 is an HSK 5 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.