睡觉 meaning in English

shuìjiào

to go to bed; to sleep

HSK 1Traditional 睡覺22 strokes

Meaning of 睡觉

Definitions from CC-CEDICT.

shuìjiào

to go to bed
to sleep

How to use 睡觉

睡觉 is the everyday word for going to bed or sleeping. It is a verb plus object, so you can put words in the middle, like 睡了一个好觉 (shuì le yí ge hǎo jiào), "had a good sleep." Example: 我十一点睡觉。(Wǒ shíyī diǎn shuìjiào.) I go to bed at eleven.

睡 (shuì) has the eye radical 目 on the left, so think of eyes closing to sleep. 觉 is the same character as in 觉得 (juéde), but here it is read jiào and means a stretch of sleep, so 睡觉 is literally "sleep a sleep."

Common mistake: Learners often read 觉 as jué here because they learned 觉得 (juéde) first. In 睡觉 it is always jiào, fourth tone. Another trap is adding an object, such as 睡觉床. Say 在床上睡觉 (zài chuáng shang shuìjiào) instead.

睡觉 in example sentences

Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.

每měi天tiān晚wǎn上shàng都dōu不bù想xiǎng睡shuì觉jiào。

I do not feel like sleeping every night.

你nǐ睡shuì觉jiào前qián别bié吃chī到dào东dōng西xī。

Do not eat anything before you go to bed.

我wǒ在zài公gōng交jiāo车chē上shàng睡shuì觉jiào了le。

I slept on the bus.

看kàn来lái他tā只zhǐ有yǒu在zài睡shuì觉jiào时shí不bù吃chī东dōng西xī。

It seems that the only time he isn't eating is when he's sleeping.

这zhè是shì我wǒ去qù睡shuì觉jiào的de地dì方fāng。

This is where I sleep.

Stroke order for each character

Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.

睡 shuì · to sleep · 13 strokes

觉 jiào · a nap · 9 strokes

Related words

Words that share a character with 睡觉.

觉得	juéde	to think that ...; to feel that ...; to feel (uncomfortable etc)
感觉	gǎnjué	feeling; impression; sensation; to feel; to perceive
午睡	wǔshuì	to take a nap in the afternoon
自觉	zìjué	to realize; to be aware of; to feel that; to be conscious of (sth relating to oneself); re
睡着	shuìzháo	to fall asleep
睡眠	shuìmián	sleep; to sleep
发觉	fājué	to become aware; to detect
觉悟	juéwù	to come to understand; to realize
直觉	zhíjué	intuition
幻觉	huànjué	illusion; hallucination
察觉	chájué	to sense; to perceive
视觉	shìjué	sight; vision

Questions about 睡觉

What does 睡觉 mean?

睡觉 (shuìjiào) means "to go to bed; to sleep".

How do you write 睡觉?

睡觉 is made of 2 characters: 睡 (13 strokes), 觉 (9 strokes). That is 22 strokes in total.

Is 睡觉 an HSK word?

Yes. 睡觉 is on the HSK 1 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.

How is 睡觉 written in traditional Chinese?

In traditional characters, 睡觉 is written 睡覺.

What is the difference between 睡觉 and 睡着?

睡觉 (shuìjiào) means going to bed or sleeping as an activity. 睡着 (shuìzháo) means actually falling asleep. So 我睡觉了，可是睡不着 means "I went to bed, but I couldn't fall asleep."

How do I say "take a nap" in Chinese?

Use 午睡 (wǔshuì) for an afternoon nap, or 睡一会儿 (shuì yíhuìr), "sleep for a little while." You can also say 睡个午觉 (shuì ge wǔjiào), which splits the verb and object like 睡觉.