写 (xiě) means To write (describe - draw). Below are 24 of the 99 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
他正在 写 作业。
Tā zhèng zài xiě zuòyè.
He is doing his homework right now.
Dictionary example · HSK 5 · 正
请 写 下你的地址。
Qǐng xiě xià nǐ de dìzhǐ.
Please write down your address.
Dictionary example · HSK 4 · 地址
请填 写 您的国籍。
Qǐng tiánxiě nín de guójí.
Please fill in your nationality.
Dictionary example · HSK 4 · 国籍
老师夸他 写 得好。
Lǎoshī kuā tā xiě de hǎo.
The teacher praised his writing.
Dictionary example · HSK 5 · 夸
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
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
我每天晚上 写 日记。
Wǒ měi tiān wǎnshang xiě rìjì.
I write in my diary every evening.
Dictionary example · HSK 4 · 日记
Reading these is one thing; producing 写 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
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
我把可能被问到的问题都 写 了下来。
wǒ bǎ kěnéng bèi wèn dào de / dì wèntí dōu xiěle xialai.
I'd written down every question I might be asked.
Graded reader · HSK 3 · The Job Interview
她给了我一张纸，上面 写 着五样东西。
tā gěile wǒ yī zhāng zhǐ, shàngmian xiězhe wǔ yàng dōngxī.
She gave me a piece of paper with five things written on it.
Graded reader · HSK 2 · At the Supermarket
现在几乎没有人 写 信了，所以我很吃惊。
xiànzài jīhū méiyǒu rén xiěxìn le / liǎo / liào, suǒyǐ wǒ hěn chījīng.
Almost nobody writes letters now, so I was surprised.
Graded reader · HSK 3 · A Letter From Grandmother
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
我给她打电话的时候，她说这封信她 写 了两次。
wǒ gěi tā dǎdiànhuà de / dì shíhou, tā shuō zhè / zhèi fēng xìn tā xiěle liǎngcì.
When I rang her, she said she'd written the letter 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
能不能 写 下来？
Néng bu néng xiě xiàlái?
Could you write that down?
Travel phrasebook · Meetings and introductions
写 appears in 99 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 写
Each of these has sentences of its own, so you can see the character doing a different job in each one.
Questions about 写
How is 写 used in a sentence?
This page shows 99 sentences using 写 (xiě, "To write (describe - draw)"), 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 写 inside a longer word?
Because that is where a single character usually lives. Seeing 写 inside the words it builds is how the character stops being an isolated symbol and starts being something you can read.
Is 写 an HSK word?
Yes — 写 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 写?
The dictionary page for 写 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 写, 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
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