How do you write "good" in Chinese?

How do you write the Chinese word "good"?

"Hao" is the Chinese word for "good." Today we are going to learn how to write the Chinese character "hao." Before we learn how to write it, let's take a careful look at the character:

Chinese character "hao" meaning "good" in English

Does it look familiar? What does this character remind you of?

(Be sure to click on Harry, Anna, and Reid for hints...)

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Ancient script for woman written next to the "nu" (woman) component of "hao" (good)

Look at the left side of the character. This is the character for “woman.” In Chinese it is pronounced “nu.”

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Ancient script for "child" written next to the "zi" (child) component of "hao"(good)

Look at the right side of the character. This is the character for “child.” In Chinese it is pronounced “zi.”

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Above: The modern "nu" (woman) combines with the modern "zi" (child) to create the modern "hao" (good) Below: Ancient script for "woman" (nu) and "child" (zi) combined to create the script for "good&

The Chinese character for “good” (hao) is the character for woman (nu) written next to the character for child (zi).

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Now that you know a little bit about the character, let's learn how to actually write it!

"Hao" written inside a spaceing grid with multi-colored strokes. The color indicates stroke oder: Red, Yellow, Pink, Green, Purple, Orange

When you write Chinese characters, the spacing and order of the strokes is very important. When you practice writing hao, be careful to write the strokes in order and pay close attention to where the character sits.

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Let's look at the first stroke.

The first stroke starts at the top of the box, in the middle left corner. The line falls downwards to the left until it almost touches the edge of the box. When you write this part of the stroke, try saying "bzz!"

Then, when you reach the edge of the box, the stroke changes directions! It continues down to the right and ends just before meeting the center line of the box. When you write this part of the stroke, try saying "swoosh!"

When I write this stroke, I make the noise: bzzzzz-swoosh.

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Now it's time for the second stroke.

The second stroke starts in the upper left corner of the box, lower than the first stroke and closer to the middle line. It then falls down to the left. It crosses over the first stroke and ends close to the left edge of the box. When I write this stroke, I make the noise "swish!"

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Now it's time for the third stroke!

The third stroke also starts in the upper left corner of the box. It goes straight across to the right and crosses over the first stroke. It stops when it hits the top of the second stroke. When I write this stroke, I make the noise: "beep!"

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Let's look at the fourth stroke.

The fourth stroke starts just over the middle line in the upper left corner of the box. It continues straight to the right, and then changes direction sharply and falls towards the center of the box. When I make this stroke, I make the noise "beep-doing!"

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Now it's time for the fifth stroke.

The fifth stroke starts where the fourth stroke left off. It falls straight down and just before it hits the bottom of the box, it twists quickly upwards. When I make this stroke, I say "zhuuuuu-doing!"

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Now look at the sixth stroke.

The sixth and final stroke starts on the middle line of the box, on the left hand side. It continues over to the right and ends just before it hits the end of the box. When I write this stroke, I say the noise "beep!"

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GOOD WORK!

You now know how to write the Chinese charcter "好" (hao), which means "good" in English.

很好! Hen hao!

Very good!

再见! Zai jian!

Good bye!

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