(de): of, ~'s (possessive particle), (used after an attribute when it modifies a noun), (used at the end of a declarative sentence for emphasis)

(de) is a Chinese character meaning “of.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. of
  2. ~'s (possessive particle)
  3. (used after an attribute when it modifies a noun)
  4. (used at the end of a declarative sentence for emphasis)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
pronounbié deelse3
adverbdí quèreally5
nounmù dìpurpose4
particleshì deseems as if5
pronounyǒu de(there are) some (who are...)1
particlede huàif (coming after a conditional clause)3
nounmù dì dìdestination (location)4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
shì deyes, that's right
tā mā de(taboo curse) damn it!
zhēn dereally
shén me deand so on
bā ěr dì móBaltimore (place name, surname etc)
zǒng de lái shuōgenerally speaking
dǎ dī(coll.) to take a taxi
dī shìtaxi (loanword)
miàn dīabbr. of 麵包車的士|面包车的士[mian4 bao1 che1 di1 shi4]
měi díMidea (brand)
yǒu de shìhave plenty of
zhòng shǐ zhī dìlit. target of a multitude of arrows (idiom)
dī gēmale taxi driver
gǔ gǔ debulging
biāo dìtarget
100
Total compounds
9
As first character
66
As last character
25
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 9 as the first character, 66 as the last, and 25 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

suǒ
0.4793,114,384 co-occurrences
zuì
0.4713,179,418 co-occurrences
0.4667,556,274 co-occurrences
xìng
0.4512,111,766 co-occurrences
shì
0.4453,871,404 co-occurrences
0.4412,188,038 co-occurrences
rén
0.4405,993,556 co-occurrences
zhōng
0.4345,756,898 co-occurrences
0.431663,592 co-occurrences
qíng
0.4271,295,028 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (17)

Bā'ěrdìmóHSK 6+

Baltimore

fēi yě shì deHSK 5+

lit. as if flying; very fast

phrase
màn wú mù dìHSK 4+

aimless; at random

phrase
nǎ r de huàHSK 1+

(coll.) not at all (humble expression denying compliment); don't mention it

phrase
pǎo táng r deHSK 4+

waiter

phrase
shěngyóu de dēngHSK 4+

person who is easy to deal with; person who does not stir up trouble

noun
Wǒ de ShìjièHSK 3+

Minecraft (a sandbox video game)

wúdìfàngshǐHSK 7+

to have no definite object in view; to have no definite objective in speech or action

phrase
yīyǔpòdìHSK 4+

to hit the mark with a single comment

phrase
yīyǔzhòngdìHSK 1+

to hit the mark with a single comment

phrase
yǒudìfàngshǐHSK 7+

to have a definite object in view; to have a definite objective in speech or action

phrase
zěn me gǎo deHSK 5+

How did it happen?; What's wrong?; What went wrong?

phrase

Showing 12 of 17 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这本书内容非常有趣,适合各个年龄段读者阅读。

Zhè běn shū de nèiróng fēicháng yǒuqù, shìhé gègè niánlíngduàn de dúzhě yuèdú.

The content of this book is very interesting and suitable for readers of all ages.

百度新闻Feb 2026

...基层)从塔里木河到钱塘江:一颗“石榴籽”..

. . . jī céng cóng tǎ lǐ mù hé dào qián táng jiāng yī kē shí 榴 籽 de . .

... From the Tarim River to the Qiantang River: A "Pomegranate Seed" of ...

百度新闻Feb 2026

小伙出售前女友送银手镯,剪开发现内芯为30克高纯..

xiǎo huǒ chū shòu qián nǚ yǒu sòng de yín shǒu 镯 , jiǎn kāi fā xiàn nèi xīn wéi kè gāo chún . .

The guy sold his ex-girlfriend to send the silver bracelet, cut open and found that the core for 30 grams of high-purity...

百度新闻Feb 2026

视频丨空间站年夜饭都有什么?听航天员报菜名收祝福

shì pín 丨 kōng jiān zhàn de nián yè fàn dū yǒu shén má ? yǐn háng tiān yuán bào cài míng shōu zhù fú

Video 丨What is the New Year's Eve dinner on the space station? I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to make it. I'm going to be able to make it.

百度新闻Feb 2026

...秒 为这5位空军勇士献花!今天是万家团圆..

. . . miǎo wéi zhè wèi kōng jūn yǒng shì xiàn huā ! jīn tiān shì mò jiā tuán yuán de . .

... Seconds! Flowers for these 5 Air Force warriors! Today is the day of family reunion...

百度新闻Feb 2026

在春晚与沈腾马丽同框机器人 在全国100多个地方..

zài chūn wǎn yú 沈 téng mǎ lí tóng kuàng de jī qì rén zài quán guó duō gě dì fāng . .

The robot that shared the frame with Shen Teng and Ma Li at the Spring Festival Gala In more than 100 places across the country...

Tatoeba

我能把我车停在这儿吗?

Wǒ néng bǎ wǒ de chē tíng zài zhèr ma?

Can I park my car here?

Tatoeba

我能借用你剪刀吗?

Wǒ néng jièyòng nǐ de jiǎndāo ma?

Can I borrow your scissors?

Tatoeba

她什么时候结婚

Tā shénmeshíhou jiéhūn de?

When did she get married?

Tatoeba

你来不来我派对啊?

Nǐ lái bù lái wǒ de pàiduì ā?

Would you like to come to my party?

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the white radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced de

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 的 (de) mean in Chinese?
的 (de) primarily means "of." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 的 have?
的 is written with 8 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 的?
The radical associated with 的 is 白 (white). This radical appears in many characters related to white.
What are the components of 的?
的 is composed of: 白 (structural), 勺 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰白勺 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 的?
Common words with 的 include: 是的 (shì de, "yes, that's right"); 他妈的 (tā mā de, "(taboo curse) damn it!"); 别的 (bié de, "else"); 真的 (zhēn de, "really"); 的确 (dí què, "really"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 的 (de)?
Several characters share the pronunciation de: 得 (to obtain), 德 (Germany), 底 ((equivalent to 的 as possessive particle)). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 的 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 的 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.