HSK 5 · Verbs

善于 shànyú “to be good at” in Chinese

Traditional 善於

What 善于 means

  1. to be good at
  2. to be adept at

How to say 善于

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale善shàn4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale于yú2nd tone, rising

善于 in a sentence

  1. 他不善于记人名。

    Tā bú shànyú jì rénmíng.

    He’s not good at remembering names.

    Sentence #5845629 from Tatoeba

  2. 她很善于砍价。

    Tā hěn shànyú kǎnjià.

    She’s good at haggling.

    Sentence #1990231 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 你善于滑雪吗？

    Nǐ shànyú huáxuě ma?

    Are you good at skiing?

    Sentence #10270517 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 善于 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 善 (shàn) with each of its parts in a different colour
善shàngood
  • 羊sheep · yáng
  • 丷eight form of 八 · bā
  • 一one · yī
  • 口mouth · kǒu
The character 于 (yú) with each of its parts in a different colour
于yúto go
  • 二two · èr
  • 亅hook · jué

How to write 善于

善 12 strokes · 于 3 strokes

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

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

Words related to 善于

Words with 善

改善gǎishàn · to make better善良shànliáng · good and honest完善wánshàn · complete妥善tuǒshàn · appropriate慈善císhàn · charity

Words with 于

终于zhōngyú · at last关于guānyú · about对于duìyú · regarding由于yóuyú · due to于是yúshì · thereupon位于wèiyú · to be located at等于děngyú · to equal属于shǔyú · to be classified as在于zàiyú · to lie in至于zhìyú · as for

More words: Thinking & Talking

请求qǐngqiú · to request劝quàn · to advise确定quèdìng · to confirm确认quèrèn · to confirm实话shíhuà · truth说不定shuōbudìng · can’t say for sure说服shuōfú · to persuade思考sīkǎo · to reflect on

FAQs

善于 (shànyú) means “to be good at” or “to be adept at”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it shànyú: shàn with a 4th tone, then yú with a 2nd 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, 善于 is written 善於. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type shanyu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 善于 from the suggestions. Typing shanyu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
善于 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.