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How to write 学 (xué, “to learn”)

学 (xué), an HSK 1 character, means “to learn”, “to study” and “to imitate”. The traditional form is 學, 16 strokes instead of 8. On its own it is an HSK 1 word; it also forms 上学 (“to go to school”), 中学 (“middle school”) and 同学 (“to study at the same school”). Japanese reads it gaku, “study”, as a JLPT N5 kanji.

Pinyin
xué
Strokes
8
HSK
1
Radical
子 (“son”)
Traditional
學

Stroke by stroke

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8

As a top-bottom character it splits into ⺍冖, strokes 1–5; 子 (“son”, the radical), strokes 6–8, written the top first.

  1. Dot ㇔top leftdown and right
  2. Dot ㇔topdown and right
  3. Left-falling stroke ㇒top rightdown and right → down and left
  4. Dot ㇔top leftdownwards
  5. Horizontal hook ㇖top leftrightwards → down and left
  6. Horizontal hook ㇖leftrightwards → down and left
  7. Curved hook ㇁centerdownwards → up and left
  8. Horizontal ㇐leftrightwards

Names of the strokes

Japanese and Chinese

Japanese and Chinese draw all 8 strokes in the same order and direction, by our stroke-by-stroke comparison.

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Japanese · KanjiVG · 8 strokes
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Chinese · Make Me a Hanzi · 8 strokes

Traditional form

Simplified
学 · 8 strokes
Traditional
學 · 16 strokes · see its strokes

Simplified vs traditional

Trace it

Follow the numbers. Tracing help

Pinyin and meaning

PinyinMeaningsTraditionalIn words
xué
second tone		to learn; to study; to imitate; science; -ology學上学 中学 同学 大学
HSK 2025 syllabus
level 1
2021 standard
level 1
HSK 2.0
in a level 1 word
Words with it
579 in CC-CEDICT

Words with 学

WordPinyinMeaning
学 學xuéto learn; to study HSK 1
上学 上學shàngxuéto go to school; to attend school HSK 1
中学 中學zhōngxuémiddle school HSK 1
同学 同學tóngxuéto study at the same school; fellow student HSK 1
大学 大學dàxuéuniversity; college HSK 1
学习 學習xuéxíto learn; to study HSK 1
学校 學校xuéxiàoschool HSK 1
学生 學生xuéshēngstudent; schoolchild HSK 1
小学 小學xiǎoxuéelementary school; primary school HSK 1
中学生 中學生zhōngxuéshēngmiddle-school student; high school student HSK 1

HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).

Practice sheet

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Keep going

HSK 1, in list order: