Learn Chinese Characters

Meaning

to sleep

Chinese: 睡觉。

Hear the Four Tones

The same syllable “shui” becomes a different word in each tone. 睡 is the 4th 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

  • 睡觉shuì jiàoto go to bed; to sleep
  • 午睡wǔ shuìto take a nap in the afternoon
  • 睡着shuì zháoto fall asleep
  • 睡眠shuì miánsleep; to sleep; (computing) to enter sleep mode
  • 睡袋shuì dàisleeping bag

Example Sentence

我每天晚上十点睡觉。Wǒ měi tiān wǎn shàng shí diǎn shuì jiào.I go to sleep at ten every night.

I每天měi tiānevery day晚上wǎn shàngeveningshítendiǎnto touch briefly睡觉shuì jiàoto go to bed

Go deeper

Where this character comes from

The eye radical 目 plus 垂 (chuí, to droop): the eyelids drooping shut. It means ‘to sleep’.

A way to remember it

Eyelids (目) drooping (垂) — to sleep.

Easy to confuse with

  • chuí‘To droop / hang’: the right-hand part of 睡, on its own.