HSK 1 · Food

水 shuǐ “water” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 水 means

  1. water
  2. (after a name) … River
  3. to swim (used mostly in 会水 and 水性)
  4. (coll.) lacking in substance
  5. shoddy
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • (bound form) additional cost
  • extra income
  • classifier for washings of a garment
  • Shui ethnic group

How to say 水

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale水shuǐ3rd tone, dipping

水 in a sentence

  1. 请你给我一杯水。

    Qǐng nǐ gěi wǒ yì bēi shuǐ.

    Please give me a cup of water.

    Sentence #334646 from Tatoeba

  2. 杯子里有水。

    Bēizi lǐ yǒu shuǐ.

    There is water in the glass.

    Sentence #10961067 from Tatoeba

  3. 谁喝了水？

    Shéi hē le shuǐ?

    Who drank the water?

    Sentence #10182785 from Tatoeba

How 水 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 水 (shuǐ) drawn as one shape
水shuǐwater

水 is a single shape of 4 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidDrawn from flowing water.

How to write 水

水 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 水

Words with 水

水果shuǐguǒ · fruit水平shuǐpíng · level矿泉水kuàngquánshuǐ · mineral water开水kāishuǐ · boiled water胶水jiāoshuǐ · glue潜水qiánshuǐ · to dive薪水xīnshui · salary淡水dànshuǐ · fresh water洪水hóngshuǐ · flood水利shuǐlì · water conservancy

More words: Food & Drink

菜cài · dish米饭mǐfàn · cooked rice水果shuǐguǒ · fruit苹果píngguǒ · apple茶chá · tea饭fàn · cooked rice面条儿miàntiáor · noodles晚饭wǎnfàn · evening meal

FAQs

水 (shuǐ) means “water” or “(after a name) … River”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it shuǐ: shuǐ with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 水 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type shui with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 水 from the suggestions. Typing shui into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
水 is an HSK 1 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.