HSK 6 · Family

祖父 zǔfù “grandfather (father’s father)” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 祖父 means

  1. grandfather (father’s father)
  2. father’s father
  3. paternal grandfather

How to say 祖父

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale祖zǔ3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale父fù4th tone, falling

祖父 in a sentence

  1. 我的祖父说话非常慢。

    Wǒ de zǔfù shuōhuà fēicháng màn.

    My grandfather speaks very slowly.

    Sentence #3341516 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我祖父的照片在墙上挂着。

    Wǒ zǔfù de zhàopiàn zài qiáng shàng guà zhe.

    My grandfather’s photo is hanging on the wall.

    Sentence #5983610 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我祖父一个人的时候，有时会自言自语。

    Wǒ zǔfù yí ge rén de shíhou, yǒushí huì zìyánzìyǔ.

    My grandfather sometimes talks to himself when he’s alone.

    Sentence #813616 from Tatoeba

How 祖父 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 祖 (zǔ) with each of its parts in a different colour
祖zǔancestor
  • 礻sign form of 示 · shìMeaning part
  • 且moreover · qiěSound part

礻 hints at the meaning (sign); 且 (qiě) hints at the sound. Compare it with zǔ.

The character 父 (fù) with each of its parts in a different colour
父fùfather
  • 八eight · bā
  • 乂to govern · yì

How to write 祖父

祖 9 strokes · 父 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 祖父

Words with 祖

祖先zǔxiān · ancestor祖国zǔguó · homeland

Words with 父

父亲fùqīn · father父母fùmǔ · parents

More words: People, Body & Health

婴儿yīng'ér · baby岳母yuèmǔ · mother-in-law (wife’s mother)侄子zhízi · nephew (brother’s son)诸位zhūwèi · everyone祖先zǔxiān · ancestor癌症áizhèng · cancer按摩ànmó · massage疤bā · scar

FAQs

祖父 (zǔfù) means “grandfather (father’s father)” or “father’s father”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it zǔfù: zǔ with a 3rd tone, then fù with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 祖父 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zufu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 祖父 from the suggestions. Typing zufu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
祖父 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.