什 — what
- Pinyin
- shén · shí
- Strokes
- 4
- HSK level
- HSK 1
- Handwriting
- required
This character has more than one reading — shén, shí — and the pronunciation depends on the word it appears in. The list below gives the syllabus reading for each word.
How to write 什: 4 strokes
Each cell adds one stroke to the previous ones, with the new stroke in red. Stroke order is not decoration: it sets the proportions of the character and makes handwriting legible to a reader. This character is on the HSK handwriting list, so the exam expects you to write it, not only recognise it.
Words with 什 in the HSK syllabus: 2
Every word in the official 2026 syllabus that contains this character, with the level it is introduced at. Learning a character pays off through these: each one combines with the characters you already know.
Glosses come from CC-CEDICT, used under CC BY-SA 4.0, and are the dictionary’s first sense rather than a translation chosen for context.