Chinese Stroke Order 笔顺 – Watch, Trace, Print

Why Stroke Order Matters

Every Chinese character is written with its strokes in a set order. It can look like an arbitrary rule, but there are good reasons for it. Characters written in the standard order come out better balanced, because each stroke is placed in relation to the ones already on the page. Writing becomes faster and smoother, because the hand moves naturally from the end of one stroke to the start of the next. And children remember characters better when each one is stored as a sequence of movements, the same way they remember how to tie a shoelace.

Stroke order also matters in practical ways. Dictionaries list characters by their number of strokes, handwriting input on phones expects strokes in roughly the right order, and teachers check stroke order in class. Habits formed in Primary 1 are hard to change later, so it is worth getting them right early.

The Basic Rules 笔顺规则

Most characters follow a small set of rules. Each example below is shown in the order used by the animations on this page.

• Horizontal before vertical 先横后竖. In 十, write the horizontal stroke first, then the vertical stroke through it.
• Left-falling before right-falling 先撇后捺. In 人, the 撇 that sweeps down to the left comes before the 捺 that sweeps down to the right.
• Top to bottom 从上到下. The three strokes of 三 are written from the top one down.
• Left to right 从左到右. 川 goes from the left stroke to the right one, and in 明 the whole of 日 on the left is written before 月 on the right.
• Outside before inside 从外到内. In 同, the frame on the left, top and right is written first, then what goes inside it.
• Finish the inside, then close the door 先里头后封口. Children remember this as 先进后关门: go into the room, then shut the door. In 日, 田, 回 and 国, the bottom horizontal stroke that closes the box is the very last stroke.
• Middle before the two sides 先中间后两边. In 小 and 水, the vertical hook in the middle comes first, then the left side, then the right side.

Characters Children Often Get Wrong

A handful of everyday characters do not write the way they look. These are worth watching a few times:

• 必 – the long 撇 that slants through the middle is only the fourth of five strokes. The character begins with the small dot on the left, then the 卧钩, then the dot at the top, then the 撇, and the dot on the right comes last.
• 火 – the two short strokes on top come first: the dot on the left, then the short stroke on the right. Only then come the long 撇 and the 捺, so it is not 人 with two dots added afterwards.
• 九 – the 撇 comes first, then the 横折弯钩 that bends round to the right.
• 万 – the top horizontal, then the 横折钩, and the 撇 last, not in the middle.
• 方 – the dot, the horizontal, the 横折钩, and again the 撇 is last.
• 车 – the long vertical stroke is the last of the four strokes, after the bottom horizontal.
• 长 – it starts with the short 撇 at the top, then the horizontal, then the 竖提, and the 捺 last.

The animations follow the stroke data of the Make Me a Hanzi project, which is based on the standard stroke order for simplified characters. Very occasionally a textbook teaches a different order for a character; if your child’s textbook or teacher shows another order, follow the school.

Using It With Your Tingxie List

On the tingxie page, add this week’s spelling list and press Stroke order: the list opens here with every character ready. You can also type or paste words straight into the box above. Repeated characters are removed, and anything that is not a Chinese character is ignored. Pinyin is shown for each character, read in the word it came from, so a character with more than one reading usually shows the one your child needs.

A good routine is to watch each new character once with the sound of the stroke names said aloud, trace it two or three times with the outline, then switch the outline off and trace it from memory. Finish the week with Write from memory, and print a tracing sheet for the characters that still cause trouble.

How to Use This Page

1. Choose characters. Type them, paste a list, pick a ready-made list, or come from the tingxie page. Tap a character in the row to work on it.
2. Watch. Press Play to see each stroke drawn in turn, or use the arrow buttons to go one stroke at a time. Tap any small picture in the stroke strip to jump to that step. Turn on Radical to colour the radical in blue, and Loop to keep the animation repeating.
3. Trace. Write each stroke in the box with a finger, a stylus or the mouse. A stroke in the wrong place or direction is not accepted, and after three tries the right stroke flashes as a hint. Turn the outline off when your child is ready.
4. Write from memory. The practice round shows each character briefly, then asks for it with no outline.
5. Print. The tracing sheet gives every character its numbered stroke steps, a row of grey characters to trace and empty 田字格 boxes to write in.

Tips for Parents and Teachers

• Say the stroke names. Saying 横、竖、撇、点、横折 while writing joins the movement to the words used in class and helps the order stick.
• Little and often. Five characters a day, traced and written properly, does more than forty copied in a hurry.
• Watch the size and position. The 田字格 guide lines show where each part of the character sits. Point out which strokes cross the centre lines.
• Learn the parts. Many characters share components. Once 口, 日 and 木 are automatic, characters such as 唱 and 林 become much easier.
• Praise neatness, not speed. Speed comes naturally once the order is automatic.

Nothing to Install, Nothing Uploaded

This page runs in your browser on any phone, tablet or computer, with no account and no download. Your list and settings are remembered on this device only. The only thing fetched from the internet is the public stroke data for each character you look at.