HSK 6 · Objects

枕头 zhěntou “pillow” in Chinese

Traditional 枕頭

What 枕头 means

  1. pillow

How to say 枕头

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale枕zhěn3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own头touneutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

枕头 in a sentence

  1. 她用两个枕头睡觉。

    Tā yòng liǎng ge zhěntou shuìjiào.

    She sleeps with two pillows.

    Sentence #8903305 from Tatoeba

  2. 我还需要一个枕头。

    Wǒ hái xūyào yí ge zhěntou.

    I need another pillow.

    Sentence #9046291 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  3. 请把枕头和毯子拿给我。

    Qǐng bǎ zhěntou hé tǎnzi ná gěi wǒ.

    Please pass me the pillow and the blanket.

    Sentence #1485510 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 枕头 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 枕 (zhěn) with each of its parts in a different colour
枕zhěnpillow
  • 木tree · mùMeaning part
  • 冘to move on · yínSound part

木 hints at the meaning (tree); 冘 (yín) hints at the sound. Compare it with zhěn.

The character 头 (tóu) with each of its parts in a different colour
头tousuffix for nouns
  • ⺀ice form of 冫 · bīng
  • 大big · dàMeaning part

Memory aidSimplified from 頭, where 页 meant “head” and 豆 (dòu) gave the sound.

How to write 枕头

枕 8 strokes · 头 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 枕头

Words with 头

头tóu · head头发tóufa · hair on the head馒头mántou · steamed roll骨头gǔtou · bone石头shítou · stone木头mùtou · wood拳头quántou · fist舌头shétou · tongue口头kǒutóu · oral镜头jìngtóu · camera shot

More words: Objects & Materials

油漆yóuqī · paint玉yù · jade渣zhā · dregs帐篷zhàngpeng · tent珍珠zhēnzhū · pearl指南针zhǐnánzhēn · compass砖zhuān · brick装备zhuāngbèi · equipment

FAQs

枕头 (zhěntou) means “pillow”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it zhěntou: zhěn with a 3rd tone, then tou with a neutral 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, 枕头 is written 枕頭. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zhentou with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 枕头 from the suggestions. Typing zhentou into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
枕头 is an HSK 6 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.