How to write 懂 (dǒng, “to understand”)

懂 (dǒng), an HSK 2 character, means “to understand” and “to comprehend”. It pairs a meaning part, 忄 (“heart”), with a sound part, 董 (“to supervise”). On its own it is an HSK 2 word; it also forms 懂得 (“to understand”), 懂事 (“to grow beyond the naivete of childhood”) and 听懂 (“to understand”). Japanese reads it tou, “understand”.

Pinyin: dǒng
Strokes: 15
HSK: 2
Radical: 忄 (“heart”)

Stroke by stroke

As a left-right character it splits into 忄 (“heart”, the radical), strokes 1–3; 董 (“to supervise”), strokes 4–15, written the left part first.

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top leftdown and right
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top rightdown and right → downwards
top rightleftwards
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centerdownwards
centerrightwards → downwards
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Names of the strokes

Where 懂 comes from

mind

Meaning part: 忄 (“heart”)
Sound part: 董 (“to supervise”)

Trace it

Follow the numbers. Tracing help

Pinyin and meaning

Pinyin	Meanings	Traditional	In words
dǒng third tone	to understand; to comprehend	—	懂得懂事听懂看懂

HSK 2025 syllabus: level 2
2021 standard: level 2
HSK 2.0: in a level 2 word
Words with it: 27 in CC-CEDICT

Words with 懂

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
懂	dǒng	to understand; to comprehend HSK 2
懂得	dǒngde	to understand; to know HSK 3
懂事	dǒngshì	to grow beyond the naivete of childhood; to be aware of what is going… HSK 7-9
听懂聽懂	tīngdǒng	to understand (on hearing); to catch (what is spoken)
看懂	kàndǒng	to understand what one is reading or watching
读懂讀懂	dúdǒng	to read and understand
听不懂聽不懂	tīngbudǒng	unable to make sense of what one is hearing
听得懂聽得懂	tīngdedǒng	to understand; to catch (what sb says)
看不懂	kànbudǒng	unable to make sense of what one is looking at
半懂不懂	bàndǒngbùdǒng	to not fully understand; to only partly understand

HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).

Practice sheet

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Keep going

HSK 2, in list order: