Meaning
dialect; language; speech; tell to
Chinese: 语言、话语；读 yù 时表示告诉。
Hear the Four Tones
The same syllable “yu” becomes a different word in each tone. 语 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
- 外语wài yǔforeign language
- 语言yǔ yánlanguage
- 词语cí yǔword (general term including monosyllables through to short phrases); term (e.g. technical term); expression
- 语音yǔ yīnspeech sounds; pronunciation; colloquial (rather than literary) pronunciation of a Chinese character; phonetic
- 语法yǔ fǎgrammar
Example Sentence
汉语是世界上使用人数最多的语言。Hàn yǔ shì shì jiè shàng shǐ yòng rén shù zuì duō de yǔ yán.Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world.
汉语Hàn yǔChinese language是shìis世界shì jièworld上shàngon使用shǐ yòngto use人数rén shùnumber of people最多zuì duōat most的deof语言yǔ yánlanguage。
Go deeper
Where this character comes from
The speech radical 讠 (meaning) plus 吾 (wú, sound): organised speech — ‘language / words’. Simplified from 語.
A way to remember it
Speech (讠) + the sound 吾 — language.
Easy to confuse with
- 说‘To speak’: the same speech radical 讠, but paired with 兑.