Learn Chinese Characters

Meaning

furniture; tool; -ist; -er; -ian; home

Chinese: 家庭、住所或某类专门人士。

Hear the Four Tones

The same syllable “jia” becomes a different word in each tone. 家 is the 1st tone. Tap any tone to hear a native voice and see its pitch shape.

Stroke Order

Tap Animate to watch the strokes in order, or Practice to trace it yourself.

Common Words

  • 大家dà jiāeveryone; influential family; great expert
  • 国家guó jiācountry; nation; state
  • 回家huí jiāto return home
  • 家里jiā lǐhome
  • 家人jiā rénfamily member; (old) servant

Example Sentence

我家有四口人。Wǒ jiā yǒu sì kǒu rén.There are four people in my family.

Ijiāhomeyǒuto havefourkǒumouthrénperson

Go deeper

Where this character comes from

A roof (宀) over a pig (豕): a pig kept indoors was the mark of a settled household. It means ‘home / family’.

A way to remember it

A pig under the roof — a household with livestock at home.

Easy to confuse with

  • xiàng‘Elephant’: a similar lower body, but with no roof and a trunk on top.