HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Connectives

子 zi “(common noun suffix)” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

Hear it in a sentence

What 子 means

  1. (common noun suffix)
  2. noun suffix, as in 椅子 “chair”

How to say 子

  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own子zineutral tone, light and short

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

子 in a sentence

  1. 你的椅子和我的很像。

    Nǐ de yǐzi hé wǒ de hěn xiàng.

    Your chair is very similar to mine.

    Sentence #1225645 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 那房子是我出生的地方。

    Nà fángzi shì wǒ chūshēng de dìfang.

    That’s the house where I was born.

    Sentence #344417 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 她戴着个奇怪的帽子。

    Tā dài zhe ge qíguài de màozi.

    She was wearing a strange hat.

    Sentence #343949 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 子 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 子 (zi) with each of its parts in a different colour
子zinoun suffix, as in 椅子 “chair”
  • 了clear · le
  • 一one · yī

Memory aidA baby with its arms out and its legs wrapped up.

How to write 子

子 3 strokes

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

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

Words related to 子

Words with 子

儿子érzi · son椅子yǐzi · chair桌子zhuōzi · table杯子bēizi · cup妻子qīzi · wife孩子háizi · child本子běnzi · book裤子kùzi · pants帽子màozi · hat裙子qúnzi · skirt

More words: Connectives & Grammar Words

可kě · but有关yǒuguān · to be related to以下yǐxià · below以上yǐshàng · above的话dehuà · if (ends a conditional clause)将jiāng · will自zì · from性xìng · (suffix) -ness

FAQs

子 (zi) means “(common noun suffix)” or “noun suffix, as in 椅子 “chair””. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it zi: zi with a neutral tone. Play the example sentences on this page to hear it in use.
Yes. 子 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 子 from the suggestions. Typing zi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
子 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.