女 (nǚ) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

女

nǚ[nu:3]Tone 3

female

HSK 1

Multiple Readings (多音字):

Guru Deep Dive

English · female

Cached lesson

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Topology:Single character

Strokes:3

Writing Balance Rule: The character should lean slightly inward with a graceful sweep. Ensure the horizontal stroke does not cross too high, dividing the triangular base evenly.

1. Meaning

female, woman, daughter

femininegirl

NounNeutral#people#family#gender

Sample Usage

她是一个好学生。
tā shì yī gè hǎo xuéshēng.
She is a good student.
我有两个女儿。
wǒ yǒu liǎng gè nǚ'ér.
I have two daughters.

2. Sound

/[ny²¹⁴]/Tone: 214

女

nǚnv3

ˇ(214)

=nǚ

Initial Consonant

Type: Alveolar Nasal

Sounds like: n sound like in English 'no'

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Air passes completely through nose.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip pressed lightly against the upper gum ridge.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -v vowel group

Sounds like: ü rhymes with the French 'u' in 'tu' or German 'ü' in 'müssen'

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ü'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T3 (214)

2 → 1 → 4 (214)

3rd Tone (Low-Dipping)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 3 starts mid, dips low to the bottom of your vocal range, and rises up, mirroring the English incredulous question intonation.

Sandhi: When followed by another 3rd tone syllable, it changes to a 2nd tone (rising 35).

👂

Listening trap: Beginners often mistake the rounded front vowel 'ü' for the standard back vowel 'u' (oo), or fail to drop the pitch low enough in the middle of the third tone.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Trace a checkmark in the air: dip down from medium-high to low, then sweep sharply up to high, matching the natural dipping intonation of disbelief in English ('Really?').

3. Writing

Topology: Single character · Strokes: 3 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The character should lean slightly inward with a graceful sweep. Ensure the horizontal stroke does not cross too high, dividing the triangular base evenly.

4. Components

Radical 女 · Female Radical (woman, female)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 女 (Acts as both the character itself and the core semantic classifier for female-related words.)

A pictographic drawing of a person kneeling with crossed arms, historically depicting a woman in a submissive or graceful posture.

女 Entire character represents a kneeling woman.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

3· Phonetic Root: 女 (nǚ)

5. History

Liushu category: Pictogram (象形)

Origin: Oracle bone scripts show a graceful figure with crossed legs or arms, kneeling respectfully, which was the ancient posture representing a woman.

Semantic Evolution: From a physical depiction of a kneeling woman in ancient society, it evolved into the modern linguistic root and independent noun meaning female, woman, and daughter.

In ancient Chinese society, the character reflected traditional social roles, but today it is universally used for gender and female family members.

6. Sinosphere

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: ジョ (jo), ニョ (nyo) / Kun: おんな (onna)

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

녀

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

Picture an elegant woman kneeling gracefully on the floor with her arms crossed over her chest, forming the exact three-stroke shape of the character 女.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

妈

māmotherCombines the female radical (女) with a horse (马) phonetic component to mean mother.

姐

jiěolder sisterCombines the female radical (女) with the phonetic component 且.

妹

mèiyounger sisterCombines the female radical (女) with the phonetic component 未 (not yet).

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

子(zǐ)

子 means child or son with a horizontal top cap, whereas 女 is wider at the bottom with a sweeping cross stroke.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

他是我的[___]儿。

Clue: nǔ ér

Common Learner Pitfall

Writing the horizontal stroke too high or making the final diagonal sweep too steep, which distorts the stable triangular base of the character.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: What does the 3-stroke character 女 mean, and how is its vowel pronounced?

Production: How do you write the character for 'female' or 'woman' in 3 strokes?

女nǚfemale

Speed:

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