Lesson 4: Strokes and Stroke Order

Question 1

Strokes

Answer 1

• Diǎn
• 点
• dot
• Tiny dash, speck
• Héng
• 横
• horizontal
• Rightward stroke
• Shù
• 竖
• vertical
• Downward stroke
• Piě
• 撇
• left slant
• Falling leftwards (with slight curve)
• Nà
• 捺
• right bend
• Falling rightwards (fattening at the bottom)
• Tí
• 提
• kick-up
• Flick up and rightwards
• Héng Gōu
• 横钩
• horizontal hook
• Shù Gōu
• 竖钩
• vertical hook
• Appended to other strokes, suddenly going down or going left only
• Wān Gōu
• 弯钩
• bend hook
• A tapering thinning curve, usually concave left (convex outward right)
• Xié Gōu
• 斜钩
• slant hook
• Curved line, usually concave right (convex outward left)
• Héng Zhé
• 横折
• horizontal break
• Indicates change in stroke direction, usually 90° turn, going down or going right only
• Shù Zhé
• 竖折
• vertical break

Question 2

stroke order in writing

Answer 2

• Characters should generally be written from top to bottom, left to right.
• Horizontal strokes go from left to right. If you have two horizontal strokes, then the top one comes first. This can be seen in characters like 二 or 首. If the character has two or three components, like 谢, then start with the component furthest to the left, then the middle one, then the right one.
• When horizontal and vertical strokes intersect, the horizontal stroke (or strokes) comes first. The vertical stroke (or strokes) is often the finishing stroke. Examples: 件，十，事 ，弗 (Technically, the vertical stroke in 事 is a hook stroke, but the same principle applies.)
• Enclosures are written before the contents, starting with the left vertical, then the top and right in a single stroke. If there is a bottom horizontal stroke on the enclosure, it is written after the contents. Examples: 间，回，日，月
• Bottom enclosures come last. Examples: 远，脑
• Right-to-left diagonals come before left-to-right diagonals. Examples: 人，父，六 . Also note that the top stroke in characters like 看 and 千 is a right-to-left diagonal. And the lower-left stroke in 没 and 冷 is written from the lower left corner towards the center.
• In vertically symmetrical characters, the center comes before the outside. Examples: 小，永，承
• Upper-left and upper-center dots come first. Examples: 六，文，请，间，弟
• Upper-right and inside dots come last. Examples: 玉，书，求