Writing - The Strokes

How to write Chinese characters?

Chinese characters may look very complicated and a lot of people may give up learning Chinese because of this. The Chinese characters are constructed from a number of “strokes”. You need to learn these strokes first, just like you need to learn how to write the 26 letters of a,b,c... to x,y,z.

There are 26 strokes you need to learn here. It's easier to divide them into 4 groups.

The first group represents the most basic 6 strokes. The other groups of strokes are actually evolved through this 6 basic strokes.

First group: 6 basic strokes

Stroke	Chinese name & pinyin	Description
	横 héng	Horizontal stroke (written left to right)
	竖 shù	Vertical stroke (written top to bottom)
	撇 piě	Down stroke to left (written top to bottom)
	捺 nà	Down stroke to right (written top to bottom)
	点 diăn	Dot (top left to bottom right)
	提 tí	Upward stroke (bottom left to top right)

Second group: strokes with a hook (钩)

Stroke	Chinese name & pinyin	Description
	横钩 héng gōu	Horizontal stroke with hook (left to right)
	竖钩 shù gōu	Vertical stroke with hook (top to bottom)
	弯钩 wān gōu	Bending stroke with hook (top to bottom)
	斜钩 xié gōu	Slant stroke with hook (top to bottom)
	平钩 píng gōu	Bending stroke with hook (top left to right)
	竖弯钩 shù wān gōu	Vertical stroke with bend & hook (top to bottom)

Third group: strokes with sharp bend (折)

Stroke	Chinese name & pinyin	Description
	竖折 shù zhé	Vertical stroke with horizontal right turn (top to bottom)
	横折 héng zhé	Horizontal stroke with vertical down turn (top to bottom)
	撇折 piě zhé	Down stroke to left with horizontal stroke
	撇点 piě diăn	Down stroke to left with dot (top to bottom)
	横撇 héng piě	Vertical stroke with down stroke to left
	竖提 shù tí	Vertical stroke with upward stroke

Fourth group: combination of more bends and hook

Stroke	Chinese name & pinyin	Description
	横折弯 héng zhé wān	Horizontal stroke with vertical down turn and bend
	横折提 héng zhé tí	Horizontal stroke with vertical down turn and upward stroke
	横折钩 héng zhé gōu	Horizontal stroke with vertical down turn and hook
	横斜钩 héng xié gōu	Horizontal stroke with slant stroke with hook
	横折弯钩 héng zhé wān gōu	Horizontal stroke with vertical down turn and bend then hook
	横折折撇 héng zhé zhé piě	Horizontal stroke with double vertical down turn and slant stroke
	横折折折钩 héng zhé zhé zhé gōu	Horizontal stroke with double vertical down turn and hook
	竖折折钩 shù zhé zhé gōu	Vertical stroke with double turn & hook (top to bottom)

The list here is not comprehensive but should cover at least 99% of Chinese characters. Just get familiar with them and it will be a bonus if you can remember the name of each stroke. If you can't, just remember the name of the 6 basic strokes first.