員 meaning and stroke order
Employee; member; personnel, staff
How to write 員, stroke by stroke
10 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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- 3
- 4
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- 9
- 10
Meaning of 員
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- (bound form) person engaged in a certain field of activity
- (bound form) member
- classifier for military generals
How 員 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Money.
貝 gives the meaning.
Radical: 口 (mouth), shared by 428 characters on this site.
How to remember 員
員 has a mouth 口 on top of a shell 貝, the old symbol of money. Picture a mouth to feed sitting on top of a paycheck: that is an employee or staff member who works for money.
員 (yuán) almost never stands alone. It attaches to other words to mean a person in a role or a member of a group, as in 演員 (yǎnyuán, actor) or 會員 (huìyuán, member). Example: 他是公務員。(Tā shì gōngwùyuán.) He is a civil servant.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 員 with 貝 (bèi, shell) or 買 (mǎi, to buy) because they share the bottom part. Look at the top: 員 has a small 口, while 買 has a flat 罒.
Common words with 員
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 人員 | rényuán | staff; crew | HSK 3 |
| 演員 | yǎnyuán | actor; actress; performer | HSK 3 |
| 成員 | chéngyuán | member | HSK 3 |
| 員工 | yuángōng | staff; personnel; employee | HSK 3 |
| 隊員 | duìyuán | team member | HSK 3 |
| 服務員 | fúwùyuán | waiter; waitress | HSK 3 |
| 會員 | huìyuán | member | HSK 3 |
| 公務員 | gōngwùyuán | civil servant; public servant | HSK 3 |
| 運動員 | yùndòngyuán | athlete | HSK 4 |
| 售貨員 | shòuhuòyuán | sales clerk; sales associate; retail salesperson | HSK 4 |
| 動員 | dòngyuán | to mobilize; mobilization | HSK 5 |
| 飛行員 | fēixíngyuán | pilot; aviator | HSK 6 |
| 球員 | qiúyuán | (ball sports) player; team member | HSK 6 |
| 船員 | chuányuán | sailor; crew member | HSK 6 |
Characters that contain 員
Learning 員 makes these easier to recognize and write.
Questions about 員
How many strokes are in 員?
員 is written with 10 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 員 mean?
員 (yuán) means employee; member; personnel, staff. A common word with it is 人员 (rényuán), meaning "staff; crew".
How do you pronounce 員?
員 is pronounced yuán, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 員?
The radical of 員 is 口, which carries the idea of "mouth". Dictionaries list 員 under this radical.
What is the simplified form of 員?
員 is a traditional character. Its simplified form is 员, used in mainland China and Singapore.
Why do I see 员 instead of 員 in most textbooks?
员 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore. 員 is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. They are the same character with the same pronunciation and meaning.
Can I use 員 by itself to mean employee?
Usually no. In modern Chinese it is a bound form, so you say 員工 (yuángōng) or 職員 (zhíyuán) for employee. Alone it survives mainly as a classifier for generals, as in 一員大將 (yī yuán dàjiàng), a great general.