Meaning
head; chief; first (occasion); first (thing); measure word for poems
Chinese: 头、第一，也作歌曲诗篇量词。
Hear the Four Tones
The same syllable “shou” becomes a different word in each tone. 首 is the 3rd 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
- 首先shǒu xiānfirst of all; in the first place
- 首都shǒu dūcapital (city)
- 首次shǒu cìfirst; first time; for the first time
- 首席shǒu xíchief (representative, correspondent etc)
- 首相shǒu xiàngprime minister (of Japan or UK etc)
Example Sentence
我很喜欢这首歌。Wǒ hěn xǐ huan zhè shǒu gē.I really like this song.
我WǒI很hěnvery喜欢xǐ huanto like这zhèthis首shǒuhead歌gēsong (CL:首,支)。
Go deeper
Where this character comes from
A pictograph of a head: hair or horns on top over a face. It means ‘head’ and, by extension, ‘first / chief’.
A way to remember it
Hair on top, a face below — the head, and so the leader at the top.
Easy to confuse with
- 页‘Page / head’: also originally a head; now used for ‘page’ and as the head-radical in 顶, 颜.