HSK 3.0 Level 4 · Connectives

自 zì “from” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 自 means

  1. from
  2. since
  3. (bound form) self
  4. oneself
  5. naturally
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • as a matter of course

How to say 自

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale自zì4th tone, falling

自 in a sentence

  1. 她来自澳大利亚。

    Tā láizì Àodàlìyà.

    She comes from Australia.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 我自小就喜欢画画。

    Wǒ zìxiǎo jiù xǐhuan huàhuà.

    I’ve loved drawing since I was little.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 自 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 自 (zì) drawn as one shape
自zìself; oneself

自 is a single shape of 6 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidDrawn from a nose. The usual explanation is that people point to their nose to mean “me”, so it came to mean “self”.

How to write 自

自 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 自

Words with 自

自己zìjǐ · oneself自行车zìxíngchē · bike来自láizì · to come from (a place)自信zìxìn · to have confidence in oneself自然zìrán · nature自觉zìjué · conscious自私zìsī · selfish自由zìyóu · freedom自愿zìyuàn · voluntary自豪zìháo · proud (of an achievement)

More words: Connectives & Grammar Words

可kě · but有关yǒuguān · to be related to子zi · (common noun suffix)将jiāng · will并bìng · and之间zhījiān · between者zhě · (suffix) person who …性xìng · (suffix) -ness

FAQs

自 (zì) means “from” or “since”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 4 word.
Say it zì: zì with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 自 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 自 from the suggestions. Typing zi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
自 is an HSK 3.0 Level 4 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 6 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.