首先

首先 shǒuxiān

In the first place (first of all)

首先 in a sentence HSK 4 shouxian

What 首先 means

  1. In the first place (first of all)

These meanings come from the same dictionary that powers the Chinese to Pinyin translator and the Chinese to English translator, so a whole sentence containing 首先 will read it the same way this page does.

Recognise a piece of 首先 but not the character it belongs to? Pick the parts in the component character finder and it will name the character for you — free for every character, with nothing to sign in to.

Character by character

首先 is written with 2 characters. Chinese words are usually easier to remember once you can see what each part contributes.

首
shǒu
Head (leader - chief - first - mw for poems-songs-music)
先
xiān
Earlier (before - first - prior - former - late)

How to write 首先

Stroke order is not decoration — it is what makes handwriting legible and what dictionary lookup by stroke count depends on.

Practise 首先 on printable 田字格 sheets, trace it in the writing practice tool, or watch any other character in the Stroke Order Animator.

首先 in a sentence

首先我要感谢大家。
Shǒuxiān wǒ yào gǎnxiè dàjiā.
First of all I want to thank everyone.
首先要做的是准备材料。
Shǒuxiān yào zuò de shì zhǔnbèi cáiliào.
The first thing to do is prepare the documents.

Every sentence on this site that uses 首先 is collected on the 首先 sentence page. Want pinyin above a sentence of your own? Paste it into the Pinyin Annotator.

Questions about 首先

What does 首先 mean in English?

首先 is pronounced shǒuxiān and means In the first place (first of all).

How do you pronounce 首先?

首先 is shǒuxiān in pinyin — written shouxian without tone marks. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice.

What are the characters in 首先?

首先 is written with 2 characters: 首 (shǒu) Head (leader - chief - first - mw for poems-songs-music), 先 (xiān) Earlier (before - first - prior - former - late). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.

Is 首先 an HSK word?

Yes — 首先 is on the official HSK 4 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 4 page.

Studied around the same time

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Translate a whole sentence containing 首先 with the Chinese to Pinyin translator, study it alongside the rest of HSK 4, drill it with HSK flashcards, or save it above and review it on your review deck.

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