Reihenfolge der Striche der chinesischen Zeichen
“If the character looks the same, why does it matter with what stroke order you wrote it?” A fair question, a fair question indeed. Well, here are three reasons why you should learn Chinese character stroke order:
- Knowing the stroke order will make it easier to remember characters. Especially when your vocabulary increases, more and more characters will look alike.
- Following the correct stroke order will help you write better, prettier, and clearer characters
- Learning the correct stroke order isn’t difficult, nearly all characters follow some basic stroke order rules
- There are no good alternatives for not following the proper stroke order
Stroke order exists in Chinese simplified and traditional characters, as well as in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese characters. Here we look at simplified Chinese characters’ stroke order!
The key rules for stroke order
Nearly all characters follow the same logic, and exceptions are very rare. The key rules for 笔画顺序 (bǐhuà shùnxù) or 笔顺 (bǐshùn) are:
- Top to bottom
- Left to right
- Horizontal, then vertical
- First right-to-left diagonals, then left-to-right diagonals
- Center comes first in vertically symmetrical characters
- Move from outside to inside and close frames last
This list doesn’t mean “top to bottom” always goes before “left to right”. As you’ll see below, 十 is first left to right, then top to bottom. But 小’s first stroke is the center, so in this way, it’s top to bottom. This is because the center comes first in vertically symmetrical characters. But 十 is also symmetrical? Yes: but it’s first horizontal, then vertical.
Then sometimes it’s also hard to understand why 王 first has two horizontal lines, then the vertical line, and then finally the last vertical line. It’s fine if you write the three horizontal lines before the vertical line. It’s fine if your stroke order follows the rules even if some characters vary slightly. Just remember the rules and you’ll make better characters.
Examples of Chinese stroke order
Ten (十 shí):
This character is fairly simple:
- Horizontal, then vertical
King (王 wáng):
The rules of writing 王, following two simple steps:
- Horizontal, then vertical
- Top to bottom
Field (田 tián):
田 has the structure of outside(口) and inside (十), we follow the rules:
- Move from outside to inside and close frames last
Small (小 xiǎo):
The rules of writing 小, following these steps:
- Center comes first in vertically symmetrical characters
- Left to right
Water (水Shuǐ):
As you can see, the rules of writing 水, follow these steps:
- Center comes first in vertically symmetrical characters (亅)
- First right-to-left diagonals (2nd ㇇)
- First right-to-left diagonals, then left-to-right diagonals (2nd to 3rd)
Treasure (宝Bǎo):
- Top to bottom
If a character has several parts, treat every part on its own
A (interjection (啊a):