HSK 3.0 Level 2 · Everyday Verbs

游 yóu “to swim” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 游 means

  1. to swim

How to say 游

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale游yóu2nd tone, rising

游 in a sentence

  1. 你喜欢游泳吗？

    Nǐ xǐhuan yóuyǒng ma?

    Do you like swimming?

    Sentence #5072418 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 下午一起去游泳吧。

    Xiàwǔ yìqǐ qù yóuyǒng ba.

    Let’s go swimming together this afternoon.

    Sentence #337224 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 他游泳比我好。

    Tā yóuyǒng bǐ wǒ hǎo.

    He swims better than I do.

    Sentence #743739 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 游 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 游 (yóu) with each of its parts in a different colour
游yóuto swim
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐ
  • 斿to swim · yóu

Memory aidWater 氵 gives the meaning: to swim, and from there to travel around.

How to write 游

游 12 strokes

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

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

Words related to 游

Words with 游

旅游lǚyóu · to travel游泳yóuyǒng · to swim游戏yóuxì · game游客yóukè · tourist导游dǎoyóu · tour guide游览yóulǎn · to go sightseeing上游shàngyóu · upper reaches (of a river)

More words: Everyday Verbs

跑pǎo · to run踢tī · to kick忘wàng · to forget下来xiàlai · to come down起qǐ · to rise得到dédào · to get受shòu · to receive跳tiào · to jump

FAQs

游 (yóu) means “to swim”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 2 word.
Say it yóu: yóu with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 游 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type you with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 游 from the suggestions. Typing you into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
游 is an HSK 3.0 Level 2 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 2 word list. It is not on the older 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.