HSK 5 · Objects

绳子 shéngzi “cord” in Chinese

Traditional 繩子

What 绳子 means

  1. cord
  2. string
  3. rope

Measure word 条 tiáo · 一条绳子 yì tiáo shéngzi

How to say 绳子

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale绳shéng2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own子zineutral tone, light and short

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

绳子 in a sentence

  1. 我们爬山的时候绳子断了。

    Wǒmen páshān de shíhou shéngzi duàn le.

    The rope broke when we were climbing the mountain.

    Sentence #13573229 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  2. 我放开了绳子。

    Wǒ fàngkāi le shéngzi.

    I let go of the rope.

    Sentence #924076 from Tatoeba

  3. 她用绳子把包裹紧紧绑好了。

    Tā yòng shéngzi bǎ bāoguǒ jǐnjǐn bǎng hǎo le.

    She tied the parcel up tightly with string.

    Sentence #337219 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 绳子 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 绳 (shéng) with each of its parts in a different colour
绳shéngrope
  • 纟silk form of 糸 · mìMeaning part
  • 黾frog · měngSound part

纟 hints at the meaning (silk); 黾 (měng) hints at the sound. Compare it with shéng.

The character 子 (zi) with each of its parts in a different colour
子zinoun suffix, as in 椅子 “chair”
  • 了clear · le
  • 一one · yī

Memory aidA baby with its arms out and its legs wrapped up.

How to write 绳子

绳 11 strokes · 子 3 strokes

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

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

Words related to 绳子

Words with 子

儿子érzi · son椅子yǐzi · chair桌子zhuōzi · table杯子bēizi · cup妻子qīzi · wife孩子háizi · child本子běnzi · book子zi · (common noun suffix)裤子kùzi · pants帽子màozi · hat

More words: Objects & Materials

墙qiáng · wall圈quān · circle日用品rìyòngpǐn · articles for daily use扇子shànzi · fan手工shǒugōng · handmade书架shūjià · bookshelf梳子shūzi · comb丝绸sīchóu · silk cloth

FAQs

绳子 (shéngzi) means “cord” or “string”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it shéngzi: shéng with a 2nd tone, then zi with a neutral 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, 绳子 is written 繩子. The pronunciation is the same.
Use 条 (tiáo). For example, one cord is 一条绳子 (yì tiáo shéngzi).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type shengzi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 绳子 from the suggestions. Typing shengzi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
绳子 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.