HSK 2 · Common Verbs

走 zǒu “to walk” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 走 means

  1. to walk
  2. to go
  3. to leave
  4. to run
  5. to move (of vehicle)
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to visit

How to say 走

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale走zǒu3rd tone, dipping

走 in a sentence

  1. 你什么时候走？

    Nǐ shénme shíhou zǒu?

    When are you leaving?

    Sentence #6884329 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他下午会去公园走一走。

    Tā xiàwǔ huì qù gōngyuán zǒu yi zǒu.

    He’ll go for a walk in the park this afternoon.

    Sentence #663250 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 再不走就迟到了。

    Zài bù zǒu jiù chídào le.

    If we don’t go soon, we’ll be late.

    Sentence #2456619 from Tatoeba

How 走 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 走 (zǒu) with each of its parts in a different colour
走zǒuto walk
  • 土earth · tǔ
  • 止stop · zhǐ

Memory aidOnce drawn as a person swinging their arms above a foot 止: to run. Today it means “to walk”.

How to write 走

走 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 走

Words with 走

走路zǒulù · to walk走廊zǒuláng · corridor走漏zǒulòu · to leak (information)走私zǒusī · to smuggle飞禽走兽fēiqínzǒushòu · birds and beasts

More words: Common Verbs

运动yùndòng · to exercise洗xǐ · to wash穿chuān · to wear送sòng · to give as gift搬bān · to move帮忙bāngmáng · to help包bāo · to cover变化biànhuà · change

FAQs

走 (zǒu) means “to walk” or “to go”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it zǒu: zǒu with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 走 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zou with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 走 from the suggestions. Typing zou into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
走 is an HSK 2 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

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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.