Where 酒 comes from
A jar 酉 of wine 氵; 酉 also provides the pronunciation
How to write 酒 (jiǔ, “wine”)
酒 (jiǔ), an HSK 2 character, means “wine”, “liquor” and “spirits”. It is a character whose parts combine into its meaning. On its own it is an HSK 3 word; it also forms 酒店 (“wine shop”), 啤酒 (“beer (loanword)”) and 白酒 (“baijiu”). Japanese reads it shu, “sake”, as a JLPT N3 kanji.
- Pinyin
- jiǔ
- Strokes
- 10
- HSK
- 2
- Radical
- 酉 (“10th earthly branch”)
Stroke by stroke
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
As a left-right character it splits into 氵 (“water”), strokes 1–3; 酉 (“10th earthly branch”, the radical), strokes 4–10, written the left part first.
- Dot ㇔top leftdown and right
- Dot ㇔top leftdown and right
- Rising stroke ㇀bottom leftupwards
- Horizontal ㇐toprightwards
- Vertical ㇑topdownwards
- Horizontal-turn ㇕centerrightwards → downwards
- Left-falling stroke ㇒topdownwards
- Vertical-curve-hook ㇟topdownwards → rightwards
- Horizontal ㇐centerrightwards
- Horizontal ㇐bottomrightwards
Japanese and Chinese
Japanese and Chinese draw all 10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| jiǔ third tone | wine (esp. rice wine); liquor; spirits; alcoholic beverage | — | 酒店 啤酒 白酒 葡萄酒 |
- HSK 2025 syllabus
- level 2
- 2021 standard
- level 2
- HSK 2.0
- in a level 3 word
- Words with it
- 235 in CC-CEDICT
Words with 酒
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 酒 | jiǔ | wine; liquor HSK 3 |
| 酒店 | jiǔdiàn | wine shop; pub (public house) HSK 2 |
| 啤酒 | píjiǔ | beer (loanword) HSK 3 |
| 白酒 | báijiǔ | baijiu, a spirit usually distilled from sorghum; white wine… HSK 4 |
| 葡萄酒 | pútaojiǔ | (grape) wine HSK 4 |
| 酒吧 | jiǔbā | bar (place to buy drinks) HSK 5 |
| 酒水 | jiǔshuǐ | alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages HSK 6 |
| 酒精 | jiǔjīng | ethanol; ethyl alcohol HSK 6 |
| 喜酒 | xǐjiǔ | wedding feast; liquor drunk at a wedding feast HSK 7-9 |
| 酒楼 酒樓 | jiǔlóu | restaurant HSK 7-9 |
HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).
Practice sheet
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Keep going
HSK 2, in list order: