Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced qiu

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced qiu, including 求 qiú, 球 qiú, 秋 qiū, 仇 chóu / qiú, 丘 qiū. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

For qiu, the tongue is high and forward on q; run straight into iu and hold the tone, not English letters in a row.

Initial q

Like j, but aspirated.

Final iu

Settle the final iu into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.

Study Tip

Start with the most common characters (求 qiú, 球 qiú, 秋 qiū, 仇 chóu / qiú, 丘 qiū) and lock in their tones. 6 common characters share the sound qiu, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

qiu turns up here with 2 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.

1st tone

Taking the 1st tone here: 秋, 丘, 邱 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

秋qiūautumn; fall; harvest time; a swing; a swing 丘qiūConfucius; given name; mound; earthenware; earthenware vessel 邱qiū(surname); mound

2nd tone

Taking the 2nd tone here: 求, 球, 仇 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

求qiúto seek; to look for; to request; to demand; to beseech 球qiúball; sphere 仇chóu / qiúhatred; animosity; enmity; a rival; an enemy; feud

Common Words With This Sound

Seeing qiu inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.

要求yāo qiúto request; to require; requirement; to stake a claim 请求qǐng qiúto request; to ask; request (需求xū qiúrequirement; to require; (economics) demand 打球dǎ qiúto play ball; to play with a ball 地球dì qiúthe earth 球队qiú duìsports team (basketball, soccer, football etc)秋天qiū tiānautumn 秋季qiū jìautumn; fall 秋日qiū rìautumn; fall 报仇bào chóuto take revenge; to avenge

Characters

6 common characters in this group.

Character#1 求 qiúto seek; to look for; to request; to demand; to beseechTraditional: 求 Character#2 球 qiúball; sphereTraditional: 毬 Character#3 秋 qiūautumn; fall; harvest time; a swing; a swingTraditional: 秋 Character#4 仇 chóu / qiúhatred; animosity; enmity; a rival; an enemy; feudTraditional: 仇 Character#5 丘 qiūConfucius; given name; mound; earthenware; earthenware vesselTraditional: 丘 Character#6 邱 qiū(surname); moundTraditional: 邱