HSK 1 · Numbers

一 yī “one” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 一 means

  1. one
  2. single
  3. a (article)
  4. as soon as
  5. entire
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • whole
  • all
  • throughout
  • “one” radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 1)

How to say 一

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale一yī1st tone, high and level

一 in a sentence

  1. 一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、九、十。

    Yī, èr, sān, sì, wǔ, liù, qī, bā, jiǔ, shí.

    One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

    Sentence #382212 from Tatoeba

  2. 我一小时后给你打电话。

    Wǒ yì xiǎoshí hòu gěi nǐ dǎ diànhuà.

    I’ll call you in an hour.

    Sentence #13922461 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 一…就…: as soon as

    我一回到家就打电话给你。

    Wǒ yì huídào jiā jiù dǎ diànhuà gěi nǐ.

    I’ll ring you as soon as I get home.

    Sentence #401127 from Tatoeba

How 一 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 一 (yī) drawn as one shape
一yīone

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

Memory aidOne stroke for one, the way people once counted with rods.

How to write 一

一 1 strokes

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

一 (yī) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 一 (yī). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 一

Words with 一

一半yībàn · half一些yīxiē · some一点儿yìdiǎnr · a little一起yìqǐ · together第一dìyī · first一下yíxià · (after a verb) briefly一般yìbān · general一定yídìng · surely一共yígòng · altogether一样yíyàng · the same

More words: Numbers & Money

二èr · two三sān · three四sì · four五wǔ · five零líng · zero千qiān · thousand两liǎng · two (of)次cì · times

FAQs

一 (yī) means “one” or “single”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it yī: yī with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 一 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 一 from the suggestions. Typing yi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
一 is an HSK 1 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

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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.