Far from being complicated drawings, Chinese characters are made out of simple single strokes, all of

them variations of only eight basic ones. All strokes have their own name and are written according to a
few rules. It's very important to learn to recognize them, since the number of strokes in a character is
often the easiest way to find it in an index... but this will become clear after learning radicals and the use
of dictionaries.

1. The following are the first six strokes, the fundamental ones:
as in the character
heng

horizontal stroke
(written from left to right)
yi (one)

as in the character
shu

vertical stroke
(written from top to bottom)
shi (ten)

as in the character
pie

down stroke to the left

(written from top right to bottom left)
ba (eight)

as in the character
na

down stroke to the right

(written from top left to bottom right)
ru (to enter)

as in the character
dian

dot
(written from top to bottom right or left)
liu (six)
as in the character

ti

upward stroke
(written from bottom left to top right)
ba (to grasp)

2. The last two strokes have several different variations. The first group is composed by five strokes with
a hook:

as in the character
henggou

horizontal stroke with a hook

zi (character)

as in the character
shugou

vertical stroke with a hook

xiao (small)

as in the character
wangou

bending stroke with a hook

gou (dog)

as in the character
xiegou

slant stroke with a hook

wo (I, me)

as in the character
pinggou

level bending stroke with a hook

wang (to forget)

3. And the following by two single strokes with a turn:

as in the character
shuzhe

vertical stroke with a horizontal turn to the

right

yi (doctor,
medicine)

as in the character
hengzhe

horizontal stroke with a vertical turn

kou (mouth)

4. Combined strokes are made out of basic ones. The following are a few examples:

shuwangou

vertical stroke combined with a level bending

stroke with a hook

as in the
character
ye (also)

as in the
character
piedian

down stroke to the left combined with a dot

nu (woman)

as in the
character
shuzhezhegou

vertical stroke with a double turn and a hook

ma (horse)

If a character can be compared to a word in alphabetic languages, then strokes are like letters... learning
them is the key to memorize characters. And then, characters don't only need to be correct, they should
also be as beautiful and balanced as possible. It is therefore necessary to copy the single strokes many
times (be it with a brush or, much easier, with a pen) to memorize their shape and thickness.
The way strokes are combined into characters involves learning a few rules on stroke order; this will be
the goal of our next lesson.
Strokes are combined together according to a few fixed rules (and to several exceptions!). Learn these
rules, because they're of great help for memorizing characters. They are also fundamental in case you
need to recognize the first stroke of a character, but we'll talk about that again.

1. Strokes at the top before those at the bottom.

The character

is written this way:

san (three)

The character

is written this way:

tian (heaven)

2. Strokes to the left before those to the right.

The character

is written this way:

men (door)

The character

is written this way:

hua (to change)

3. Containing strokes before contained ones.

The
character

The
character

is written
this way:

si (four)

yue (moon)

The sealing horizontal stroke

must be written last ("close
the door after you have
entered the room")

is written
this way:

But:

When there aren't enclosing strokes at the top of the character, enclosed strokes are written first:

The character
zhe (this)

is written this
way:

4. Vertical stroke in the middle before those on both sides or at the bottom.
The character

is written this way:

shui (water)

The character

is written this way:

shan (mountain)

But:

If it crosses other strokes the vertical stroke in the middle should be written last:

The character

is written this way:

zhong (middle)

The fundamental rules - from top to bottom and from left to right - are easily understandable, since they
are used in Western writings, too. The others on the contrary need a few exercise. Be sure to learn from
the beginning the correct way each different character should be written; otherwise you may find yourself
repeating the same mistakes over and over without realizing it, especially when you'll know hundreds of
characters.