How to write 服 (fú, “clothes”)

服, an HSK 1 character, is read fú for “clothes” and “dress”, and also fù (“classifier for medicine: dose”). As a left-right character it splits into 月 (“moon or flesh”, the radical), strokes 1–4; 卩又, strokes 5–8, written the left part first. On its own it is an HSK 6 word; it also forms 衣服 (“clothes”), 舒服 (“comfortable”) and 服务 (“to serve”). Japanese reads it fuku, “clothing”, as a JLPT N4 kanji.

Pinyin: fú, fù
Strokes: 8
HSK: 1
Radical: 月 (“moon or flesh”)

Stroke by stroke

Vertical then left-falling ㇓top leftdownwards → down and left
Horizontal-turn-hook ㇆top leftrightwards → downwards
Horizontal ㇐lefta dot
Horizontal ㇐leftrightwards
Horizontal-turn-hook ㇆toprightwards → down and left → up and left
Vertical ㇑topdownwards
Horizontal then left-falling ㇇centerrightwards → down and left
Right-falling stroke ㇏centerdown and right

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.

Japanese · KanjiVG · 8 strokes

Chinese · Make Me a Hanzi · 8 strokes

Trace it

Follow the numbers. Tracing help

Pinyin and meaning

Pinyin	Meanings	Traditional	In words
fú second tone	clothes; dress; garment; to serve (in the military, a prison sentence etc); to obey	—	服务客服说服克服
fù fourth tone	classifier for medicine: dose	—	—

HSK 2025 syllabus: level 1
2021 standard: level 1
HSK 2.0: in a level 1 word
Words with it: 158 in CC-CEDICT

Words with 服

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
服	fú	clothes; dress HSK 6
衣服	yīfu	clothes HSK 1
舒服	shūfu	comfortable; feeling well HSK 2
服务服務	fúwù	to serve; service HSK 3
客服	kèfú	customer service HSK 5
说服說服	shuōfú	to persuade; to convince HSK 5
克服	kèfú	(try to) overcome (hardships etc); to conquer HSK 5
服装服裝	fúzhuāng	dress; clothing HSK 5
服从服從	fúcóng	to obey (an order); to comply HSK 6
服用	fúyòng	to take (medicine) HSK 6

HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).

Practice sheet

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Keep going

HSK 1, in list order: