Meaning of 人
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- person; people
Measure word: 個|个,位,名
How to use 人
人 means person or people and often combines with other words to name a kind of person, like 工人 (gōngrén) worker or 病人 (bìngrén) patient. It also follows country names to show nationality. Example: 我是中国人。(Wǒ shì Zhōngguó rén.) I am Chinese.
人 (rén) looks like a person walking, with two strokes as legs striding forward. Picture someone seen from the side, stepping along, and you have the word for person.
Common mistake: Learners often mix up 人 (rén) with 入 (rù, to enter), which has the same two strokes but with the left stroke on top. In 人 the right stroke leans on the left one, so check which stroke is higher.
人 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
人 rén · person · 2 strokes
- 1
- 2
Related words
Words that share a character with 人.
| 女人 | nǚrén | woman |
| 男人 | nánrén | a man; a male |
| 别人 | biérén | other people; others; other person |
| 家人 | jiārén | family member; (old) servant |
| 病人 | bìngrén | sick person; patient |
| 工人 | gōngrén | worker |
| 老人 | lǎorén | old man or woman; the elderly |
| 有人 | yǒu rén | someone; people |
| 人们 | rénmen | people |
| 大人 | dàren | adult; grownup |
| 客人 | kèrén | visitor; guest; customer |
| 好人 | hǎorén | good person; healthy person |
Questions about 人
What does 人 mean?
人 (rén) means "person; people" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 人?
人 is made of 1 character: 人 (2 strokes). That is 2 strokes in total.
Is 人 an HSK word?
Yes. 人 is on the HSK 1 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How do you say how many people in Chinese using 人?
Use 个 (gè) as the measure word, as in 三个人 (sān gè rén) three people. To ask how many, say 几个人 (jǐ gè rén) for small numbers or 多少人 (duōshao rén) for larger ones. In polite settings like restaurants, 位 (wèi) is used instead, as in 几位 (jǐ wèi).
Does 人们 mean the same thing as 人?
人们 (rénmen) means people in general, as a group, like in 人们都喜欢春天 (rénmen dōu xǐhuan chūntiān) people all like spring. You cannot use 们 with a number, so say 三个人, never 三个人们.