字 (zì) means Character (symbol - letter - word). Below are 24 of the 26 sentences on this site that use it — with pinyin, an English translation and audio. All of them were written by hand; none is machine generated.
Dictionary examples
学汉 字 不太容易。
Xué Hànzì bú tài róngyì.
Learning Chinese characters isn't very easy.
Dictionary example · HSK 3 · 容易
她的 字 写得很漂亮。
Tā de zì xiě de hěn piàoliang.
She writes characters beautifully.
Dictionary example · HSK 1 · 漂亮
这个 字 是什么意思？
Zhège zì shì shénme yìsi?
What does this character mean?
Dictionary example · HSK 2 · 意思
老师在黑板上写 字 。
Lǎoshī zài hēibǎn shàng xiě zì.
The teacher is writing on the blackboard.
Dictionary example · HSK 3 · 黑板
黑板上的 字 太小了。
Hēibǎn shàng de zì tài xiǎo le.
The writing on the blackboard is too small.
Dictionary example · HSK 3 · 黑板
From the graded readers
我们每天学习二十个 字 。
wǒmen měitiān xuéxí èrshí gè zì.
We learn twenty characters a day.
Graded reader · HSK 1 · Learning Chinese
汉 字 很难，我常常写错。
hànzì hěn nán, wǒ chángcháng xiě cuò.
Chinese characters are hard and I often write them wrong.
Graded reader · HSK 1 · Learning Chinese
信上的 字 写得很大，很认真。
xìn shàng de / dì zì xiě dehěn dà, hěn rènzhēn.
The characters on the page were large and carefully formed.
Graded reader · HSK 3 · A Letter From Grandmother
发消息的人用的是小林的名 字 。
fā xiāoxi de / dì rén yòng de / dì shì xiǎo lín de / dì míngzi.
The name on the message was Xiaolin's.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · A Misunderstanding
她说话不快，可是每个 字 都很清楚。
tā shuōhuà bùkuài, kěshì měi gè zì dōu hěn qīngchu.
She doesn't speak fast, but every word is clear.
Graded reader · HSK 2 · My Chinese Teacher
她只回了四个 字 ：“早就没事了。”
tā zhī huí le / liǎo / liào sì gè zì:" zǎo jiù méi shì le / liǎo / liào."
She replied with four words: "It was fine long ago."
Graded reader · HSK 4 · A Misunderstanding
为了一个 字 ，一位八十三岁的老人写了两遍。
wèile yīgè zì, yī wèi bāshí sān suì de / dì lǎorén xiěle liǎng biàn.
For the sake of one character, an eighty-three-year-old had written it out twice.
Graded reader · HSK 3 · A Letter From Grandmother
第一次写错了一个 字 ，她觉得不好看，就重新写了一遍。
dìyīcì xiě cuò le / liǎo / liào yīgè zì, tā juéde bùhǎo kàn / kān, jiù chóngxīn xiěle yī biàn.
The first time she'd got one character wrong, thought it looked untidy, and written the whole thing again.
Graded reader · HSK 3 · A Letter From Grandmother
照片背面写着一个日期和一个名 字 ，可是那个名 字 她也想不起来了。
zhàopiàn bēi miàn xiězhe yīgè rìqī hé yīgè míngzi, kěshì nèigè míngzi tā yě xiǎng bù qǐlai le / liǎo / liào.
On the back was a date and a name, but even she couldn't place the name.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · An Old Photograph
From the travel phrasebook
可以发文 字 吗？
Kěyǐ fā wénzì ma?
Could you send that as text?
Travel phrasebook · WeChat and staying in touch
我备注一下您的名 字 。
Wǒ bèizhù yíxià nín de míngzi.
Let me save your name.
Travel phrasebook · WeChat and staying in touch
From the grammar library
老师的名 字 很长。
Lǎoshī de míngzi hěn cháng.
The teacher's name is long.
Grammar library · HSK 1 · 的 for possession and description
字 appears in 26 sentences on this site; the 24 shortest and most direct are shown. The rest are on the pages they were written for — the graded readers, the phrasebook and the grammar library.
Words that contain 字
Each of these has sentences of its own, so you can see the character doing a different job in each one.
Questions about 字
How is 字 used in a sentence?
This page shows 26 sentences using 字 (zì, "Character (symbol - letter - word)"), each with pinyin, an English translation and audio. Every one of them was written by hand for this site.
Are these sentences machine generated?
No. They come from the site's own dictionary examples, graded readers, travel phrasebook and grammar library — all written by a person. A word with no sentence gets no page here, rather than a page of invented ones.
Why do some sentences show 字 inside a longer word?
Because that is where a single character usually lives. Seeing 字 inside the words it builds is how the character stops being an isolated symbol and starts being something you can read.
Is 字 an HSK word?
Yes — 字 is on the official HSK 1 vocabulary list, and you can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 1 page.
Where can I see the full entry for 字?
The dictionary page for 字 has its stroke order, its traditional form, every sense the dictionary lists and a character-by-character breakdown. It is linked at the top of this page.
Keep going
Read the full entry for 字, write a sentence of your own and check it in the Pinyin Annotator, drill it with HSK 1 flashcards, or search the whole sentence bank for another word.
Another word
Chinese, pinyin or English. Tone marks optional.