HSK 4 · Work

师傅 shīfu “master” in Chinese

Traditional 師傅

What 师傅 means

  1. master
  2. qualified worker
  3. respectful form of address for older men

Measure word 个 gè or 位 wèi · 一个师傅 yí ge shīfu

How to say 师傅

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale师shī1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own傅funeutral tone, light and short

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

师傅 in a sentence

  1. 师傅，方向反了，我要去东边，你怎么往西边开？

    Shīfu, fāngxiàng fǎn le, wǒ yào qù dōngbian, nǐ zěnme wǎng xībian kāi?

    Excuse me, driver, this is the wrong way. I want to go east – why are you heading west?

    Sentence #3060465 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 宝石师傅在胸针上镶了一枚大珍珠。

    Bǎoshí shīfu zài xiōngzhēn shàng xiāng le yì méi dà zhēnzhū.

    The jeweller set a large pearl in the brooch.

    Sentence #522035 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 师傅 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 师 (shī) with each of its parts in a different colour
师shīteacher
  • 刂knife form of 刀 · dāo
  • 帀to rotate
The character 傅 (fù) with each of its parts in a different colour
傅fùinstructorlight in 师傅
  • 亻person form of 人 · rén
  • 尃to announce · fū

How to write 师傅

师 6 strokes · 傅 12 strokes

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

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

Words related to 师傅

Words with 师

老师lǎoshī · teacher律师lǜshī · lawyer工程师gōngchéngshī · engineer师范shīfàn · teacher training

More words: School, Work & Culture

竞争jìngzhēng · to compete零钱língqián · change (of money)律师lǜshī · lawyer生意shēngyi · business收入shōurù · income售货员shòuhuòyuán · salesperson现金xiànjīn · cash演员yǎnyuán · actor or actress

FAQs

师傅 (shīfu) means “master” or “qualified worker”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it shīfu: shī with a 1st tone, then fu 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, 师傅 is written 師傅. The pronunciation is the same.
Use 个 (gè) or 位 (wèi). For example, one master is 一个师傅 (yí ge shīfu).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type shifu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 师傅 from the suggestions. Typing shifu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
师傅 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.