HSK 6 · Places

祖国 zǔguó “homeland” in Chinese

Traditional 祖國

What 祖国 means

  1. homeland
  2. motherland

How to say 祖国

  • 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 second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale国guó2nd tone, rising

祖国 in a sentence

  1. 他的祖国是德国。

    Tā de zǔguó shì Déguó.

    His home country is Germany.

    Sentence #1314196 from Tatoeba

  2. 我爱我的祖国。

    Wǒ ài wǒ de zǔguó.

    I love my homeland.

    Sentence #507219 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 祖国 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 国 (guó) with each of its parts in a different colour
国guócountry; nation; state
  • 囗enclosure · wéi
  • 玉jade · yù

Memory aidTreasure 玉 kept inside a country’s borders 囗.

How to write 祖国

祖 9 strokes · 国 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 祖国

Words with 祖

祖父zǔfù · grandfather (father’s father)祖先zǔxiān · ancestor

Words with 国

国guó · country中国Zhōngguó · China出国chūguó · to go abroad外国wàiguó · foreign (country)国家guójiā · country国际guójì · international国籍guójí · nationality国王guówáng · king国庆节Guóqìngjié · PRC National Day (October 1st)国防guófáng · national defence

More words: Places & Geography

车库chēkù · garage当地dāngdì · local岛屿dǎoyǔ · islands大厦dàshà · large building州zhōu · state周边zhōubiān · surrounding住宅zhùzhái · residence走廊zǒuláng · corridor

FAQs

祖国 (zǔguó) means “homeland” or “motherland”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it zǔguó: zǔ with a 3rd tone, then guó with a 2nd 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, 祖国 is written 祖國. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zuguo with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 祖国 from the suggestions. Typing zuguo into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
祖国 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.