HSK 3 · Adjectives

长 zhǎng “to grow” in Chinese

Traditional 長

What 长 means

  1. to grow
  2. to look like
  3. chief
  4. head
  5. elder
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to develop
  • to increase

How to say 长

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale长zhǎng3rd tone, dipping

长 in a sentence

  1. 你长大了。

    Nǐ zhǎngdà le.

    You’ve grown up.

    Sentence #9962396 from Tatoeba

  2. 你为什么长不大呢?

    Nǐ wèishénme zhǎng bu dà ne?

    Why won’t you grow up?

    Sentence #3839481 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我看你长得像汤姆。

    Wǒ kàn nǐ zhǎng de xiàng Tāngmǔ.

    I think you look like Tom.

    Sentence #5845581 from Tatoeba

How 长 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 长 (cháng) drawn as one shape
长zhǎngchief

长 is a single shape of 4 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidSimplified from 長, drawn from a person with long hair: long (cháng), and to grow (zhǎng).

How to write 长

长 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 长

Words with 长

More words: Adjectives

FAQs

长 (zhǎng) means “to grow” or “to look like”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it zhǎng: zhǎng with a 3rd 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, 长 is written 長. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zhang with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 长 from the suggestions. Typing zhang into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
Yes. Read cháng, 长 means “long”. That reading has its own page. Read zhǎng, it means “to grow”.
长 is an HSK 3 word in the 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.