Meaning
always; to assemble; gather; total; overall; head
Chinese: 总括、全部或总是。
Hear the Four Tones
The same syllable “zong” becomes a different word in each tone. 总 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
- 总是zǒng shìalways
- 总结zǒng jiéto sum up; to conclude; summary; résumé
- 总统zǒng tǒngpresident (of a country)
- 总之zǒng zhīin a word; in short; in brief
- 总理zǒng lǐpremier; prime minister
Example Sentence
他总是第一个到教室。Tā zǒng shì dì yī ge dào jiào shì.He is always the first to arrive at the classroom.
他Tāhe总是zǒng shìalways第一dì yīfirst个ge(measure word)到dàoto reach教室jiào shìclassroom。
Go deeper
Where this character comes from
Simplified from 總. It means ‘to gather, sum up; general, overall, chief; always; in any case, anyway’ (总是, 总共, 总结).
A way to remember it
‘Overall / always / to sum up’: 总是 (always), 总共 (in all).