HSK 3.0 Level 3 · People

员 yuán “(suffix) member” in Chinese

Traditional 員

What 员 means

  1. (suffix) member
  2. person in a role
  3. (bound form) person engaged in a certain field of activity
  4. (bound form) member
  5. classifier for military generals

How to say 员

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

员 in a sentence

  1. 服务员，请给我们菜单。

    Fúwùyuán, qǐng gěi wǒmen càidān.

    Waiter, could we have the menu, please?

    Sentence #11837290 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他们是演员。

    Tāmen shì yǎnyuán.

    They’re actors.

    Sentence #1020113 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 将来我想做飞行员。

    Jiānglái wǒ xiǎng zuò fēixíngyuán.

    I want to be a pilot in the future.

    Sentence #735321 from Tatoeba

How 员 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 员 (yuán) with each of its parts in a different colour
员yuánperson engaged in a certain field
  • 口mouth · kǒu
  • 贝sea shell · bèiMeaning part

How to write 员

员 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 员

Words with 员

服务员fúwùyuán · waiter运动员yùndòngyuán · athlete演员yǎnyuán · actor or actress售货员shòuhuòyuán · salesperson人员rényuán · staff员工yuángōng · employee裁员cáiyuán · to cut staff委员wěiyuán · committee member成员chéngyuán · member动员dòngyuán · to mobilise

More words: People & Family

别的biéde · other女生nǚshēng · female student大人dàren · adult老人lǎorén · old person

FAQs

员 (yuán) means “(suffix) member” or “person in a role”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 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.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 员 is written 員. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type yuan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 员 from the suggestions. Typing yuan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
员 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 4 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.