HSK 1 · Common Verbs

坐 zuò “to sit” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 坐 means

  1. to sit
  2. to travel by (bus, train, plane)
  3. to take a seat
  4. to take (a bus, aeroplane etc)
  5. to bear fruit

How to say 坐

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale坐zuò4th tone, falling

坐 in a sentence

  1. 请坐一下。

    Qǐng zuò yíxià.

    Please have a seat.

    Sentence #415599 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我就坐这儿。

    Wǒ jiù zuò zhèr.

    I’ll just sit here.

    Sentence #7823009 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 坐 can also mean “to travel by” (bus, taxi, plane)

    你可以坐出租车。

    Nǐ kěyǐ zuò chūzūchē.

    You can take a taxi.

    Sentence #4563024 from Tatoeba

How 坐 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 坐 (zuò) with each of its parts in a different colour
坐zuòto sit
  • 从from · cóng
  • 土earth · tǔ

How to write 坐

坐 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 坐

Words with 坐

乘坐chéngzuò · to ride (in a vehicle)

More words: Common Verbs

请qǐng · please能néng · can会huì · can爱ài · to love打篮球dǎlánqiú · to play basketball懂dǒng · to understand过guò · to pass卖mài · to sell

FAQs

坐 (zuò) means “to sit” or “to travel by (bus, train, plane)”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it zuò: zuò with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 坐 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zuo with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 坐 from the suggestions. Typing zuo into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
坐 is an HSK 1 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.