Where 始 comes from
woman
- Meaning part
- 女 (“female”)
- Sound part
- 台 (“platform”)
How to write 始 (shǐ, “to begin”)
始 (shǐ), an HSK 2 character, means “to begin”, “to start” and “then”. It is HSK 2 in the 2025 syllabus, down from level 3 in the 2021 standard. It pairs a meaning part, 女 (“female”), with a sound part, 台 (“platform”). Among the HSK words it appears in 开始 (“to begin”), 始终 (“from beginning to end”) and 原始 (“first”). Japanese reads it shi, “commence”, as a JLPT N4 kanji.
- Pinyin
- shǐ
- Strokes
- 8
- HSK
- 2
- Radical
- 女 (“female”)
Stroke by stroke
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
As a left-right character it splits into 女 (“female”, the radical), strokes 1–3; 台 (“platform”), strokes 4–8, written the left part first.
- Left-falling then dot ㇛top leftdownwards → down and right
- Left-falling stroke ㇒leftdownwards → down and left
- Rising stroke ㇀leftrightwards
- Left-falling-turn ㇜topdown and left → rightwards
- Dot ㇔top rightdown and right
- Vertical ㇑centerdownwards
- Horizontal-turn ㇕centerrightwards → down and left
- Horizontal ㇐bottomrightwards
Japanese and Chinese
Japanese and Chinese draw all 8 strokes in the same order and direction, by our stroke-by-stroke comparison.
Trace it
Follow the numbers. Tracing help
Pinyin and meaning
| Pinyin | Meanings | Traditional | In words |
|---|---|---|---|
| shǐ third tone | to begin; to start; then; only then | — | 开始 始终 原始 自始至终 |
- HSK 2025 syllabus
- level 2
- 2021 standard
- level 3
- HSK 2.0
- in a level 2 word
- Words with it
- 45 in CC-CEDICT
Words with 始
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 开始 開始 | kāishǐ | to begin; to start HSK 2 |
| 始终 始終 | shǐzhōng | from beginning to end; all along HSK 5 |
| 原始 | yuánshǐ | first; original HSK 6 |
| 自始至终 自始至終 | zìshǐ-zhìzhōng | from start to finish (idiom) HSK 7-9 |
| 创始人 創始人 | chuàngshǐrén | creator; founder HSK 7-9 |
| 始点 始點 | shǐdiǎn | starting point |
| 起始 | qǐshǐ | to begin; to start |
| 自始 | zìshǐ | from the outset; ab initio |
| 从零开始 從零開始 | cónglíngkāishǐ | to start from scratch |
| 初始 | chūshǐ | initial; starting (point) |
HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).
Practice sheet
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Keep going
HSK 2, in list order: