HSK 4 · Verbs

商量 shāngliang “to consult” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 商量 means

  1. to consult
  2. to talk over
  3. to discuss

How to say 商量

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale商shāng1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own量liangneutral tone, light and short

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

商量 in a sentence

  1. 有件事我一直想跟你商量。

    Yǒu jiàn shì wǒ yìzhí xiǎng gēn nǐ shāngliang.

    There’s something I’ve been meaning to discuss with you.

    Sentence #6857070 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我得找人商量一下。

    Wǒ děi zhǎo rén shāngliang yíxià.

    I need to find someone to talk it over with.

    Sentence #1446809 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 她想与他商量一些事。

    Tā xiǎng yǔ tā shāngliang yìxiē shì.

    She wanted to go over a few things with him.

    Sentence #9401595 from Tatoeba

How 商量 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 商 (shāng) with each of its parts in a different colour
商shāngcommerce
  • 亠lid · tóu
  • 丷eight form of 八 · bā
  • 冏bright · jiǒngMeaning part

冏 hints at the meaning (bright); 章 (zhāng) hints at the sound. Compare it with shāng.

The character 量 (liáng) with each of its parts in a different colour
量liángto measurelight in 商量
  • 旦dawn · dànSound part
  • 里village · lǐMeaning part

里 hints at the meaning (village); 旦 (dàn) hints at the sound. Compare it with liang.

How to write 商量

商 11 strokes · 量 12 strokes

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

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

Words related to 商量

Words with 商

Words with 量

More words: Thinking & Talking

FAQs

商量 (shāngliang) means “to consult” or “to talk over”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it shāngliang: shāng with a 1st tone, then liang with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 商量 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type shangliang with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 商量 from the suggestions. Typing shangliang into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
商量 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.