HSK 5 · Society

偷 tōu “to steal” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 偷 means

  1. to steal
  2. (bound form) thief
  3. (bound form) secretly
  4. on the sly

How to say 偷

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale偷tōu1st tone, high and level

偷 in a sentence

  1. 昨晚我的自行车被偷了。

    Zuówǎn wǒ de zìxíngchē bèi tōu le.

    My bike was stolen last night.

    Sentence #334530 from Tatoeba

  2. 他否认偷了钱。

    Tā fǒurèn tōu le qián.

    He denied having stolen the money.

    Sentence #437447 from Tatoeba

  3. 那男人偷了我的钱包。

    Nà nánrén tōu le wǒ de qiánbāo.

    That man stole my wallet.

    Sentence #792791 from Tatoeba

How 偷 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 偷 (tōu) with each of its parts in a different colour
偷tōuto steal
  • 亻person form of 人 · rénMeaning part
  • 俞to consent · yúSound part

亻 hints at the meaning (person); 俞 (yú) hints at the sound. Compare it with tōu.

How to write 偷

偷 11 strokes

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

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

Words related to 偷

More words: Society & Law

权利quánlì · right (an entitlement)人才réncái · talent人口rénkǒu · population士兵shìbīng · soldier外交wàijiāo · diplomacy王子wángzǐ · prince违反wéifǎn · to violate (a law)移民yímín · to immigrate

FAQs

偷 (tōu) means “to steal” or “(bound form) thief”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it tōu: tōu with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 偷 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type tou with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 偷 from the suggestions. Typing tou into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
偷 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.