HSK 3 · Family

爷爷 yéye “father’s father” in Chinese

Traditional 爺爺

What 爷爷 means

  1. father’s father
  2. paternal grandfather
  3. (coll.) paternal grandfather
  4. grandpa

How to say 爷爷

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale爷yé2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own爷yeneutral tone, light and short

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

爷爷 in a sentence

  1. 你爷爷多大了？

    Nǐ yéye duō dà le?

    How old is your grandpa?

    Sentence #1147872 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 那个故事是我爷爷告诉我的。

    Nà ge gùshi shì wǒ yéye gàosu wǒ de.

    My grandpa told me that story.

    Sentence #844691 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我把这封信寄给爷爷了。

    Wǒ bǎ zhè fēng xìn jì gěi yéye le.

    I sent this letter to my grandpa.

    Sentence #2561515 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 爷爷 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 爷 (yé) with each of its parts in a different colour
爷yégrandpa
  • 父father · fùMeaning part
  • 卩seal · jié

父 hints at the meaning (father); 耶 (yē) hints at the sound. Compare it with yé.

The character 爷 (yé) with each of its parts in a different colour
爷yégrandpalight in 爷爷
  • 父father · fùMeaning part
  • 卩seal · jié

父 hints at the meaning (father); 耶 (yē) hints at the sound. Compare it with ye.

How to write 爷爷

爷 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 爷爷

More words: People, Body & Health

邻居línjū · neighbour奶奶nǎinai · grandma叔叔shūshu · father’s younger brother同事tóngshì · colleague自己zìjǐ · oneself鼻子bízi · nose锻炼duànliàn · to exercise耳朵ěrduo · ear

FAQs

爷爷 (yéye) means “father’s father” or “paternal grandfather”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it yéye: yé with a 2nd tone, then ye 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, 爷爷 is written 爺爺. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type yeye with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 爷爷 from the suggestions. Typing yeye into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
爷爷 is an HSK 3 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.