HSK 1 · Common Verbs

下雨 xiàyǔ “to rain” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 下雨 means

  1. to rain

How to say 下雨

  • 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雨yǔ3rd tone, dipping

下雨 in a sentence

  1. 明天会下雨吗?

    Míngtiān huì xiàyǔ ma?

    Will it rain tomorrow?

    Sentence #333928 from Tatoeba

  2. 在下雨吗?

    Zài xiàyǔ ma?

    Is it raining?

    Sentence #10617221 from Tatoeba

  3. 昨天下雨,所以我们都没去。

    Zuótiān xiàyǔ, suǒyǐ wǒmen dōu méi qù.

    It rained yesterday, so none of us went.

    Sentence #10501237 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 下雨 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 雨 (yǔ) drawn as one shape
雨yǔrain

雨 is a single shape of 8 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidDrawn from raindrops falling from the sky.

How to write 下雨

下 3 strokes · 雨 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 下雨

Words with 下

Words with 雨

More words: Common Verbs

FAQs

下雨 (xiàyǔ) means “to rain”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it xiàyǔ: xià with a 4th tone, then yǔ with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 下雨 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type xiayu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 下雨 from the suggestions. Typing xiayu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
下雨 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.