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该 — should; ought to; probably

should; ought to; probably; must be; to deserve; to owe

Pinyin
gāi
Strokes
8
HSK level
HSK 3
Handwriting
required

How to write 该: 8 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.

该 — 8 strokes, in writing order from left to right.

Build a printable practice sheet with 该

Words with 该 in the HSK syllabus: 3

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.

  1. 该gāishould; ought to; probably; must be; to deserveHSK 3
  2. 应该yīnggāiought to; should; mustHSK 3
  3. 活该huógāiserve sb right; deservedly; ought; shouldHSK 7–9

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.