(): sentence, clause, phrase, classifier for phrases or lines of verse

() is a Chinese character meaning “sentence.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #707 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a phrase 勹 from the mouth 口. Its radical form (mouth) appears in many related characters such as (kǒu, mouth), (jiào, to call, to be called), (yòu, (bound form) right).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. sentence
  2. clause
  3. phrase
  4. classifier for phrases or lines of verse

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA phrase 勹 from the mouth 口

Decomposition: ⿹勹口 (layout: surround-from-upper-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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
nounjù zisentence3

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
huàn jù huà shuōin other words
jù hàofull stop
shī jùverse
yǔ jùsentence
pái jùhaiku
cí jùwords and sentences
zì jùwords
jǐng jùaphorism
yí wèn jùquestion (grammar)
zào jùsentence-making
duàn jùto pause at appropriate points in reading aloud unpunctuated writing
míng jùoft-quoted phrase
chén shù jùdeclarative sentence
jù fǎsyntax
zhú zì zhú jùliteral
71
Total compounds
23
As first character
68
As last character
10
As middle character

appears in 71 compound words: 23 as the first character, 68 as the last, and 10 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.

0.55020 co-occurrences
huà
0.53520,000 co-occurrences
0.52714,652 co-occurrences
shī
0.4607,152 co-occurrences
0.45117,718 co-occurrences
huàn
0.4235,556 co-occurrences
fān
0.42321 co-occurrences
bǐng
0.4201,680 co-occurrences
0.4206,888 co-occurrences
shuō
0.3999,552 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

bì mén mì jùHSK 7+

lit. lock the door and search for the right word (idiom); fig. the serious hard work of writing

phrase
huànjùhuàshuōHSK 3+

that is to say; in other words

adverb
sān yán liǎng jùHSK 3+

in a few words (idiom); expressed succinctly

phrase
wǔyán juéjùHSK 4+

pentasyllabic quatrain; five-syllable quatrain

noun
zhúzìzhújùHSK 5+

word by word and phrase by phrase, in a literal manner

phrase
zì zhēn jù zhuóHSK 7+

weighing every word

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

才很好,能言善辩,是个出色的律师。

tā gōu cái hěn hǎo , néng yán shàn biàn , shì gě chū sè de lǜ shī .

He is eloquent and persuasive, an outstanding lawyer.

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...癌走了!好友忆去年两人看刘德华电影 她一话成遗憾

. . . ái zǒu le ! hǎo yǒu yì qù nián liǎng rén kàn liú dé huá diàn yǐng tā yī jù huà chéng yí hàn

... The cancer is gone! Friends recalled that last year, the two watched Andy Lau's movie, and her words became regrets

中時新聞網Feb 2026

...靠向美国!黄介正点出最怕川普对台湾说“这话”

. . . kào xiàng měi guó ! huáng jiè zhèng diǎn chū zuì pà chuān pǔ duì tái wān shuō zhè jù huà

... Leaning towards the United States! Huang Jiezheng pointed out that he was most afraid of Trump saying "this sentence" to Taiwan

Hk01.comFeb 2026

Brian讲《夜王》被剪爆金:啲波Cut晒,好多人想睇Renci个波...

B r i a n jiǎng yè wáng bèi jiǎn bào jīn jù : 啲 bō C u t shài , hǎo duō rén xiǎng 睇 R e n c i gè bō . . .

Brian said that "The Night King" was cut to pieces: "The balls are cut, and many people want to see Renci's balls...

百度新闻Feb 2026

千问“一话下单”受年轻人追捧,00后占比超40%...

qiān wèn yī jù huà xià dān shòu nián qīng rén zhuī pěng , 0 0 hòu zhàn bǐ chāo 4 0 . . .

Qianwen's "one-sentence order" is sought after by young people, and the post-00s account for more than 40%...

百度新闻Feb 2026

一杯热水赠归人 一感谢显温情 环兰高速人:点滴之..

yī bēi rè shuǐ zèng guī rén yī jù gǎn xiè xiǎn wēn qíng huán lán gāo sù rén : diǎn dī zhī . .

A cup of hot water is given to the person A word of thanks to show warmth Huanlan Expressway people: drip:

Tatoeba

顺便说一,你最近见过他吗?

Shùnbiàn shuō yījù, nǐ zuìjìn jiàn guo tā ma?

By the way, have you seen him lately?

Tatoeba

你可不可以帮我把这些子翻译成中文?

Nǐ kěbu kěyǐ bāng wǒ bǎ zhèxiē jùzi fānyì chéng Zhōngwén?

Can you help me to translate these sentences into Chinese?

Tatoeba

顺便问一,你今晚有空吗?

Shùnbiàn wèn yījù, nǐ jīnwǎn yǒu kòng ma?

By the way, are you free tonight?

Tatoeba

顺便问一,你们已经去过北海道了吗?

Shùnbiàn wèn yījù, nǐmen yǐjīng qù guo Běihǎidào le ma?

By the way, have you ever been to Hokkaido?

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 句 (jù) mean in Chinese?
句 (jù) primarily means "sentence." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #707 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 句 have?
句 is written with 5 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 句?
The radical associated with 句 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 句?
句 is composed of: 勹 (structural), 口 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿹勹口 with a surround-from-upper-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 句?
Common words with 句 include: 换句话说 (huàn jù huà shuō, "in other words"); 句子 (jù zi, "sentence"); 句号 (jù hào, "full stop"); 诗句 (shī jù, "verse"); 语句 (yǔ jù, "sentence"). There are over 71 compound words containing this character.
Is 句 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 句 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.