Character Lesson 1 – Basic Strokes Group 1
Basic Chinese Strokes
Learn Chinese Stroke Names and Write Chinese Strokes
Thanks for joining ChineseFor.Us Hands-on Writing Course. Starting from this lesson we will start to learn the Chinese Stroke names and how to write Chinese strokes. There are 11 basic Chinese strokes and we’ll discuss and practice them in 4 lessons.
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LESSON INFO
KEYWORDS
- Basic Chinese strokes
- Chinese stroke names
QUESTIONS
- How many basic Chinese strokes are there?
- What are the first 3 basic Chinese stroke names?
LESSON NOTES
Basic Chinese strokes
In our lessons, we will discuss 11 basic Chinese strokes.
3 Chinese stroke names
There are 3 basic Chinese strokes discussed in this lesson. And the Chinese stroke names are Dot 点 (diǎn), Horizontal 横 (héng) , and Vertical 竖 (shù).
Example Characters with Horizontal
十, 子, 三
Example Characters with Vertical
土, 工, 耳
Example Characters with Dot
门, 小, 寸
How to write Chinese strokes?
When we write Chinese strokes, for each single stroke, we will write just one time, no back and forth. And also, our pen point will stay on the paper the whole time.
I am a bit confused. In the written example of xia (down). The top row of written examples has the third stroke going down and to the right. On the bottom example, where it is shown how to put all three strokes together, the third stroke goes straight out to the right instead of tilting downwards like the top examples. Which should it be? Or why would they be different?
Sorry for the confusion. It’s a difference caused by printed script and handwriting script. The angles aren’t as strict as printed script, but in the video that stroke indeed could be more pointing downward. We’ll be more careful and write as standard as possible in the future.
Thanks!
as a beginner starting from scratch should i learn spoken Chinese first or written characters first ?
I am left handed, so would I write in the oppostie direction for heng and dian?
The way to write a character is the same for right-handed and left-handed people.
Should we start memorizing the words used as examples?
It is not mandatory but it’s always good to memorize more characters.
While writing, would it just be memorization that helps us to remember the stroke order or, after time we just form a pattern to know?
Hi, Lili. What is the last stroke in xia (down)? Was it a heng (horizontal ) or a dian (dot)? Thanks.
It’s a dian (点）. I believe that the 下 and 上 are not exact mirrors, as 下uses dian and 上uses heng.
Hello lili. Can you show the lessons please.
Will these strokes help me to cover all the chinese words?
Yes.
How do you put the strokes together and get the word for it
That depends on the specific character you want to write. Each character is composed of one or more of the strokes covered in this course; the exact composition of the strokes depends on the character. I’ve been studying Chinese for only about 8 months (I’m taking these courses to improve my foundation before I try to continue) but I find the characters are easier to read/understand/learn if you understand the strokes, stroke order, and even the radicals that compose them. Every time I learn a new word, I take the time to learn the character(s) that compose the word.