语 — dialect; language; speech
- Pinyin
- yǔ · yù
- Strokes
- 9
- HSK level
- HSK 1
- Handwriting
- required
This character has more than one reading — yǔ, yù — and the pronunciation depends on the word it appears in. The list below gives the syllabus reading for each word.
How to write 语: 9 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 语 in the HSK syllabus: 18
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.
- 汉语HànyǔChinese languageHSK 1
- 外语wàiyǔforeign languageHSK 3
- 语言yǔyánlanguageHSK 3
- 词语cíyǔword; term; expressionHSK 4
- 口语kǒuyǔcolloquial speech; spoken languageHSK 4
- 语法yǔfǎgrammar; syntaxHSK 4
- 语气yǔqìtone; manner of speaking; moodHSK 5
- 语文yǔwénliterature and language; ChineseHSK 5
- 语音yǔyīnspeech sounds; pronunciationHSK 5
- 成语chéngyǔChinese set expression, typically of 4 characters, often alluding to a story or historical quotation; idiom; proverb; saying; adageHSK 6
- 母语mǔyǔnative language; mother tongue; parent languageHSK 6
- 言语yányǔwords; speech; languageHSK 6
- 自言自语zìyán-zìyǔto talk to oneself; to think aloud; to soliloquizeHSK 6
- 标语biāoyǔwritten slogan; placardHSK 7–9
- 话语huàyǔwords; speech; utterance; discourseHSK 7–9
- 欢声笑语huānshēng-xiàoyǔcheers and laughterHSK 7–9
- 谜语míyǔriddle; conundrumHSK 7–9
- 俗语súyǔcommon saying; proverb; colloquial speechHSK 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.