先生

先生 xiānsheng

Mr (teacher - husband - doctor - sir)

HSK 1 xiansheng

What 先生 means

  1. Mr (teacher - husband - doctor - sir)

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 先生 will read it the same way this page does.

Character by character

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

xiān
Earlier (before - first - prior - former - late)
shēng
Life (give birth - be born - grow)

How to write 先生

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

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

先生 in a sentence

王先生是老师。
Wáng xiānsheng shì lǎoshī.
Mr. Wang is a teacher.

Want pinyin above a sentence of your own? Paste it into the Pinyin Annotator.

Questions about 先生

What does 先生 mean in English?

先生 is pronounced xiānsheng and means Mr (teacher - husband - doctor - sir).

How do you pronounce 先生?

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

What are the characters in 先生?

先生 is written with 2 characters: 先 (xiān) Earlier (before - first - prior - former - late), 生 (shēng) Life (give birth - be born - grow). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.

Is 先生 an HSK word?

Yes — 先生 is on the official HSK 1 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 1 page.

Studied around the same time

Keep going

Translate a whole sentence containing 先生 with the Chinese to Pinyin translator, study it alongside the rest of HSK 1, drill it with HSK flashcards, or save it above and review it on your review deck.

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