HSK 5 · Function Words

乙 yǐ “second (in a sequence)” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 乙 means

  1. second (in a sequence)
  2. B
  3. second of the ten Heavenly Stems 十天干
  4. second in order
  5. letter “B” or Roman “II” in list “A, B, C”, or “I, II, III” etc
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • second party (in legal contract, usually 乙方, as opposed to 甲方)
  • ethyl
  • bent

How to say 乙

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale乙yǐ3rd tone, dipping

乙 in a sentence

  1. 甲之蜜糖，乙之砒霜。

    Jiǎ zhī mìtáng, yǐ zhī pīshuāng.

    One person’s honey is another’s poison.

    Sentence #5092091 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 乙 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 乙 (yǐ) drawn as one shape
乙yǐsecond of the ten Heavenly Stems 十天干

乙 is a single shape of 1 stroke. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 乙

乙 1 strokes

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

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

Words related to 乙

More words: Function Words & Grammar

要不yàobù · otherwise一旦yídàn · once一律yílǜ · without exception依然yīrán · still以及yǐjí · and以来yǐlái · since (a previous event)因而yīn'ér · therefore一再yízài · again and again

FAQs

乙 (yǐ) means “second (in a sequence)” or “B”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it yǐ: yǐ with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 乙 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type yi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 乙 from the suggestions. Typing yi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
乙 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

A dictionary gives you the words. A native teacher shows you how to use them. Start with a free 30-minute intro call.

Book a free intro call

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.