HSK 6 · Work

下属 xiàshǔ “subordinate” in Chinese

Traditional 下屬

What 下属 means

  1. subordinate
  2. underling

How to say 下属

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale下xià4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale属shǔ3rd tone, dipping

下属 in a sentence

  1. 她对下属很友好。

    Tā duì xiàshǔ hěn yǒuhǎo.

    She’s very friendly towards her staff.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 经理让下属准备会议材料。

    Jīnglǐ ràng xiàshǔ zhǔnbèi huìyì cáiliào.

    The manager asked his subordinates to prepare the meeting materials.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 下属 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 下 (xià) with each of its parts in a different colour
下xiàdown
  • 一one · yī
  • 卜divination · bǔ

Memory aidA short stroke below the line: down, below.

The character 属 (shǔ) with each of its parts in a different colour
属shǔcategory
  • 尸corpse · shīMeaning part
  • 禹legendary Hsia dynasty founder · YǔSound part

尸 hints at the meaning (corpse); 禹 (Yǔ) hints at the sound. Compare it with shǔ.

How to write 下属

下 3 strokes · 属 12 strokes

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

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

Words related to 下属

Words with 下

下xià · down下午xiàwǔ · afternoon下雨xiàyǔ · to rain下班xiàbān · to finish work下课xiàkè · to finish class一下yíxià · (after a verb) briefly下面xiàmiàn · below下去xiàqù · to go down下来xiàlai · to come down以下yǐxià · below

Words with 属

属于shǔyú · to be classified as金属jīnshǔ · metal家属jiāshǔ · family member附属fùshǔ · affiliated

More words: Work & Career

徒弟túdì · apprentice外行wàiháng · layman委托wěituō · to entrust委员wěiyuán · committee member协调xiétiáo · to coordinate协议xiéyì · agreement薪水xīnshui · salary验收yànshōu · to check and accept

FAQs

下属 (xiàshǔ) means “subordinate” or “underling”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it xiàshǔ: xià with a 4th tone, then shǔ with a 3rd 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, 下属 is written 下屬. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type xiashu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 下属 from the suggestions. Typing xiashu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
下属 is an HSK 6 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.