Mark Zegarelli
Mark Zegarelli

Stroke #12 – shù :

(Characters 87-91)


The stroke shù tí combines two basic strokes: a vertical shù stroke followed by an upward diagonal stroke.

 

Adding the shù tí stroke to your repertoire allows you to draw this character, which appears in a variety of multiple-character words:

 

Character

Mandarin Pronunciation

Meaning in English

by mean of, according to

Stroke Order (4): shù tí + diǎn + shù piě + diǎn

 

And here's an everyday word that includes shù tí:

 

Character

Mandarin Pronunciation

Meaning in English

clothes

Stroke Order (6): diǎn + héng + piě + shù tí + piě +

 

Note that 以 and 衣 aren't homophones in Mandarin because their tones are different.

 

The next character is a little complicated, but it includes a left-side and right side component:

 

Character

Mandarin Pronunciation

Meaning in English

zhōng

o'clock

Stroke Order (9): piě + héng + héng + héng + shù tí +shù + héng zhé + héng +shù

 

Before moving on, notice that the right side of this character is simply 中 (meaning "center," pronounced zhōng in Mandarin).

 

The next character includes the same component on the left side as the previous character:

 

Character

Mandarin Pronunciation

Meaning in English

cuò

mistake

Stroke Order (13): piě + héng + héng + héng + shù tí + héng + shù + shù + héng + shù + héng zhé + héng + héng

 

This left-side component is a simplified form of the character 金 (meaning "gold," pronounced jīn in Mandarin). It appears in this form on the left side of a variety of Chinese characters.

 

To finish up, here’s a character you’ll commonly use in China when asking a person their name:

 

Character

Mandarin Pronunciation

Meaning in English

jiào

to call, to be called

Stroke Order (5): shù + héng zhé + héng + shù tí +shù