小 (xiǎo) means Small (few - young). Below are 24 of the 320 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
Reading these is one thing; producing 小 yourself is another. Cloze in Context takes a sentence from this same bank, removes one word and asks you to put it back — beginner, intermediate and advanced.
From the graded readers
我叫 小 美，我是学生。
wǒ jiào xiǎo měi, wǒ shì xuésheng.
My name is Xiaomei, and I'm a student.
Graded reader · HSK 1 · My Family
我有一只猫，它叫 小 白。
wǒ yǒu yī zhī māo, tā jiào xiǎo bái.
I have a cat called Xiaobai.
Graded reader · HSK 1 · My Cat
小 白是白色的，很漂亮。
xiǎo bái shì báisè de / dì, hěn piàoliang.
Xiaobai is white and very pretty.
Graded reader · HSK 1 · My Cat
我和 小 林是十年的朋友。
wǒ hé xiǎo lín shì shínián de / dì péngyou.
Xiaolin and I had been friends for ten years.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · A Misunderstanding
我们家有一只猫，它叫 小 白。
wǒmen jiā yǒu yī zhī māo, tā jiào xiǎo bái.
We have a cat called Xiaobai.
Graded reader · HSK 1 · My Family
小 雨要去另一个城市工作了。
xiǎo yǔ yāo qù lìngyī gè chéngshì gōngzuòle.
Xiaoyu was leaving to work in another city.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · Saying Goodbye
四个 小 时以后，火车到了上海。
sì gè xiǎoshí yǐhòu, huǒchē dàole shànghǎi.
Four hours later the train arrived in Shanghai.
Graded reader · HSK 2 · The Train to Shanghai
两个 小 时以后，我又打了一次。
liǎng gè xiǎoshí yǐhòu, wǒ yòu dǎle yīcì.
Two hours later I tried again.
Graded reader · HSK 3 · Losing My Phone
From the travel phrasebook
请给我 小 面额的。
Qǐng gěi wǒ xiǎo miàn'é de.
Small notes, please.
Travel phrasebook · Paying and mobile payment
小 appears in 320 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 小
Each of these has sentences of its own, so you can see the character doing a different job in each one.
Questions about 小
How is 小 used in a sentence?
This page shows 320 sentences using 小 (xiǎo, "Small (few - young)"), 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 小 inside a longer word?
Because that is where a single character usually lives. Seeing 小 inside the words it builds is how the character stops being an isolated symbol and starts being something you can read.
Is 小 an HSK word?
Yes — 小 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 小?
The dictionary page for 小 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 小, 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.