Mark Zegarelli
Mark Zegarelli

Introducing Basic Stroke

zhé

The word zhé means "break," indicating a turn or bend to a stroke already in progress. Thus, zhé is always used in combination with either the héng stroke or the shù stroke.

 

For example, when zhé is used as an extension of the héng stroke, the result is a 90-degree downward bend: 

Stroke #3 – héng zhé:

(Characters 15-24)

 

Thus, héng zhé is a compound stroke, combining the two basic strokes héng and zhé.

 

Further combining one héng zhé stroke with each of the strokes you already know produces another common character:

 

Character

Mandarin Pronunciation

Meaning in English

kǒu

mouth

Stroke Order (3): shù + héng zhé + héng

 

Keep an eye in particular on the stroke order in this character: Begin with the shù stroke on the left side, continue with the héng zhé stroke, and finish with the héng stroke on the bottom. This order is common when forming a box shape using these three strokes.

 

Here's another character that follows a similar stroke order, incorporating both the order for a box as well as the top-to-bottom rule:

 

Character

Mandarin Pronunciation

Meaning in English

day, sun

Stroke Order (4): shù + héng zhé + héng ­+ héng

 

Generally speaking, when drawing something inside a box, begin with the shù and héng zhé strokes, then draw whatever's inside the box, and finally complete the box with a héng stroke on the bottom. Here's another character in which this same basic stroke order is maintained.

 

Character

Mandarin Pronunciation

Meaning in English

eye

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

 

Here's one more Chinese character you can write using only the three strokes you've learned. This character also follows the same stroke order rules you've already learned:

 

Character

Mandarin Pronunciation

Meaning in English

qiě

moreover

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

 

And here's yet another character that that's composed only of the three strokes you know so far. Note that inside the box, the horizontal héng stroke precedes the vertical shù stroke, just as in 十:

 

Character

Mandarin Pronunciation

Meaning in English

tián

field

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

 

Here's another example of a character in which the bottom stroke of the outer box is only completed after the contents inside have been drawn:

 

Character

Mandarin Pronunciation

Meaning in English

huí

to circle, to go back

Stroke Order (6): shù + héng zhé + shù + héng zhé + héng + héng

 

Here's a character that includes a shù stroke in the middle of the character. This time, because the shù stroke isn't wholly contained inside the box, this stroke is drawn after the box is completed:

 

Character

Mandarin Pronunciation

Meaning in English

zhōng

middle, center, in

Stroke Order (4): shù + héng zhé + héng + shù

 

Here are two more similar character, with a couple of key differences:

 

Character

Mandarin Pronunciation

Meaning in English

old

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

 

Character

Mandarin Pronunciation

Meaning in English

zhàn

to occupy

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

 

Both of these characters are drawn generally from top to bottom. However, in the character , meaning "old," the top vertical shù stroke is written first, and then the short héng stroke is written after that. In contrast, in the character zhàn, meaning "to occupy," the longer top héng stroke is written first, and then the vertical shù stroke crosses it.

 

Finally, here's a character that contains a total of nine strokes, but they're all easy to make:

 

Character

Mandarin Pronunciation

Meaning in English

pǐn

product

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

 

In this case, stroke order requires you to draw three complete boxes: first the one on top, then the one on the left, and finally the one on the right. Each box is composed of three strokes drawn in the usual order.

 

As you may have guessed, there are no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to stroke order, so don't make yourself crazy trying to follow them. Lots of Chinese people – and there are 1.5 billion of them! – fudge or simply ignore some of the rules and still write entirely legible characters.