HSK 3.0 Level 4 · Action

生 shēng “to be born” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 生 means

  1. to be born
  2. to give birth
  3. to grow
  4. to produce
  5. to arise
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to occur
  • to light (a fire)
  • to live
  • to be alive
  • life
  • raw

How to say 生

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale生shēng1st tone, high and level

生 in a sentence

  1. 她最近生了孩子。

    Tā zuìjìn shēng le háizi.

    She recently had a baby.

    Sentence #13256585 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 那房子是我出生的地方。

    Nà fángzi shì wǒ chūshēng de dìfang.

    That’s the house where I was born.

    Sentence #344417 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 你记得你父亲的生日吗？

    Nǐ jìde nǐ fùqīn de shēngrì ma?

    Do you remember your father’s birthday?

    Sentence #937642 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 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 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 生

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.

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

Words related to 生

Words with 生

医生yīshēng · doctor学生xuésheng · student先生xiānsheng · mr大学生dàxuéshēng · university student小学生xiǎoxuéshēng · primary school student中学生zhōngxuéshēng · middle-school student生日shēngrì · birthday生病shēngbìng · to get sick生气shēngqì · angry女生nǚshēng · female student

More words: Action & Change Verbs

带来dàilái · to bring (about)变成biànchéng · to turn into服务fúwù · to serve进入jìnrù · to enter算suàn · to calculate改gǎi · to change成chéng · to become求qiú · to seek

FAQs

生 (shēng) means “to be born” or “to give birth”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 4 word.
Say it shēng: shēng with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 生 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type sheng with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 生 from the suggestions. Typing sheng into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
生 is an HSK 3.0 Level 4 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 3 word list. It is not on the older 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.