Learn Chinese Characters

Meaning

jade

Chinese: 玉、玉石。

Hear the Four Tones

The same syllable “yu” becomes a different word in each tone. 玉 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

  • 玉米yù mǐcorn; maize
  • 碧玉bì yùjasper
  • 玉人yù réna jade worker; a jade statuette; a beautiful person; (term of endearment)
  • 玉成yù chéngplease help achieve something (formal)
  • 玉手yù shǒulily-white hands

Example Sentence

她戴着一只漂亮的玉镯。Tā dài zhe yì zhī piào liang de yù zhuó.She is wearing a beautiful jade bracelet.

shedàito respectzhe(ongoing action)onezhīonly漂亮piào liangprettydeofjadezhuóbracelet

Go deeper

Where this character comes from

Three discs threaded on a string (like jade pieces on a cord), with a dot added to tell it apart from 王. It means ‘jade’. As a left radical the dot is dropped, looking like 王.

A way to remember it

Like 王 (king) but with a precious dot — jade.

Easy to confuse with

  • wáng‘King’: the same three lines and stem, without the dot.
  • zhǔ‘Master’: the dot sits on top, not inside.