HSK 3 · Common Objects

元 yuán “Chinese monetary unit” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 元 means

  1. Chinese monetary unit
  2. dollar
  3. first
  4. currency unit (esp. Chinese yuan)
  5. (bound form) first
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • original
  • primary
  • (bound form) basic
  • fundamental
  • (bound form) constituent
  • part

How to say 元

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale元yuán2nd tone, rising

元 in a sentence

  1. 五千元是很多钱。

    Wǔ qiān yuán shì hěn duō qián.

    Five thousand yuan is a lot of money.

    Sentence #3283115 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 只要十元！

    Zhǐyào shí yuán!

    Only ten yuan!

    Sentence #8388775 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 价钱是二十五元五毛。

    Jiàqian shì èrshíwǔ yuán wǔ máo.

    The price is twenty-five yuan fifty.

    Sentence #420704 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 元 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 元 (yuán) with each of its parts in a different colour
元yuáncurrency unit
  • 二two · èr
  • 儿legs · ér

Memory aidA person 儿 with the head marked on top 二: the head, the first. Today it is also China’s main unit of money.

How to write 元

元 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 元

Words with 元

公元gōngyuán · CE (Common Era)元旦Yuándàn · New Year’s Day单元dānyuán · unit (forming an entity)元首yuánshǒu · head of state元素yuánsù · element元宵节Yuánxiāojié · Lantern Festival多元化duōyuánhuà · diversification

More words: Everyday Things

万wàn · ten thousand位wèi · position习惯xíguàn · habit信用卡xìnyòngkǎ · credit card张zhāng · mw for flat objects照片zhàopiàn · picture照相机zhàoxiàngjī · camera只zhī · measure word for animals (a cat

FAQs

元 (yuán) means “Chinese monetary unit” or “dollar”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it yuán: yuán with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 元 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type yuan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 元 from the suggestions. Typing yuan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
元 is an HSK 3 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.