How to write 租 (zū, “to hire”)

租 (zū), an HSK 1 character, means “to hire”, “to rent” and “to charter”. It is HSK 1 in the 2025 syllabus, down from level 2 in the 2021 standard. It is a character whose parts combine into its meaning. On its own it is an HSK 4 word; it also forms 出租车 (“taxi”), 出租 (“to rent”) and 房租 (“rent for a room or house”). Japanese reads it so, “tariff”, as a JLPT N1 kanji.

Pinyin: zū
Strokes: 10
HSK: 1
Radical: 禾 (“grain plant”)

Stroke by stroke

As a left-right character it splits into 禾 (“grain plant”, the radical), strokes 1–5; 且 (“moreover”), strokes 6–10, written the left part first.

Left-falling stroke ㇒topdown and left
Horizontal ㇐leftrightwards
Vertical ㇑top leftdownwards
Left-falling stroke ㇒leftdown and left
Dot ㇔leftdown and right
Vertical ㇑topdownwards
Horizontal-turn ㇕toprightwards → downwards
Horizontal ㇐centerrightwards
Horizontal ㇐centerrightwards
Horizontal ㇐bottomrightwards

Names of the strokes

Japanese and Chinese

Japanese and Chinese draw all 10 strokes in the same order and direction, by our stroke-by-stroke comparison.

Japanese · KanjiVG · 10 strokes

Chinese · Make Me a Hanzi · 10 strokes

Where 租 comes from

Regularly paid 且 tribute in grain 禾

Trace it

Follow the numbers. Tracing help

Pinyin and meaning

Pinyin	Meanings	Traditional	In words
zū first tone	to hire; to rent; to charter; to rent out; to lease out	—	出租车出租房租租金

HSK 2025 syllabus: level 1
2021 standard: level 2
HSK 2.0: in a level 1 word
Words with it: 52 in CC-CEDICT

Words with 租

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
租	zū	to hire; to rent HSK 4
出租车出租車	chūzūchē	taxi; rental car HSK 1
出租	chūzū	to rent HSK 4
房租	fángzū	rent for a room or house HSK 4
租金	zūjīn	rent HSK 5
租赁租賃	zūlìn	to rent; to lease HSK 7-9
分租	fēnzū	to rent out one or more parts of a property; to sublet one or more…
包租	bāozū	to rent; to charter
日租	rìzū	to rent by the day
时租時租	shízū	to rent by the hour

HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).

Practice sheet

Print at 100%. Several characters: worksheet maker.

Keep going

HSK 1, in list order: