仔 meaning and stroke order
Small thing, child; young animal
How to write 仔, stroke by stroke
5 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
- 1
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- 5
Meaning of 仔
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- (bound form) (of domestic animals or fowl) young
- (bound form) fine; detailed
- variant of 崽[zai3]
- (dialect) (bound form) young man
- used in 仔肩[zi1 jian1]
How 仔 is built
Ideographic (compound meaning) character. A person 亻 keeping watch over a child 子; 子 also provides the pronunciation.
Radical: 亻 (man), shared by 277 characters on this site.
How to remember 仔
仔 is a person 亻 standing beside a child 子, keeping watch over the little one. Think of someone carefully watching a child, which links to both "small young one" and "careful" in 仔细 (zǐxì).
As zǐ, it appears most often in 仔细 (zǐxì, careful), while as zǎi it means a young animal or young man, as in 牛仔 (niúzǎi, cowboy) and 猪仔 (zhūzǎi, piglet). Example: 请你仔细看看。(Qǐng nǐ zǐxì kànkan.) Please look at it carefully.
Common mistake: Learners often read every 仔 as zǐ, but in 牛仔裤 (niúzǎikù), 公仔 (gōngzǎi) and 靓仔 (liàngzǎi) it is zǎi. Also do not confuse 仔 with 子 (zǐ) alone, since 仔细 is never written 子细.
Common words with 仔
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
仔 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 仔
How many strokes are in 仔?
仔 is written with 5 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 仔 mean?
仔 (zǐ) means small thing, child; young animal. A common word with it is 仔细 (zǐxì), meaning "careful; attentive; cautious; to be careful; to look out".
How do you pronounce 仔?
仔 is pronounced zǐ, in the third tone (dipping).
What is the radical of 仔?
The radical of 仔 is 亻, which carries the idea of "man". Dictionaries list 仔 under this radical.
Is 仔 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 仔 is part of the HSK 5 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
Why does 仔 sound like 子?
According to the etymology data, 子 is not only the child in the picture but also provides the pronunciation. That is why the main reading zǐ matches 子.
Is 靓仔 used in standard Mandarin?
靓仔 (liàngzǎi) comes from dialect use, where 仔 (zǎi) means young man. It is widely understood and used casually to call a young man handsome, but it sounds informal.