替 (tì): to substitute for, to take the place of, to replace

替 (tì) is a Chinese character meaning “to substitute for.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 夫 (structural), 夫 (structural) and 日 (structural). It ranks #1078 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 替 one man 夫 replacing another; 日 provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 曰 (say) appears in many related characters such as 更 (gèng, more), 曲 (qū, bent), 曰 (yuē, to speak).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to substitute for
  2. to take the place of
  3. to replace

Etymology & Origin

替

ideographicOne man 夫 replacing another; 日 provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿱⿰夫夫日 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 替

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
代替verbdài tìto replace5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
替代verbtì dàito substitute for
替换verbtì huànto exchange
接替verbjiē tìto replace
替身nountì shēnstand-in
替补tì bǔto replace (a damaged component with a new one, an injured player with a substitute player, full-time workers with ca...
替罪羊nountì zuì yángscapegoat
顶替verbdǐng tìto replace
替代品nountì dài pǐnsubstitute
交替verbjiāo tìto replace
替死鬼nountì sǐ guǐscapegoat
冒名顶替phrasemào míng dǐng tìto assume sb's name and take his place (idiom)
更替verbgēng tìto take over (from one another)
替班verbtì bānto act as substitute
替天行道phrasetì tiān xíng dào(idiom) to enforce justice on behalf of Heaven
世代交替shì dài jiāo tì(biology) alternation of generations
48
Total compounds
42
As first character
42
As last character
17
As middle character

替 appears in 48 compound words: 42 as the first character, 42 as the last, and 17 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 替 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

补bǔ
0.58212,882 co-occurrences
接jiē
0.53546,232 co-occurrences
代dài
0.52583,813 co-occurrences
澄chéng
0.52311 co-occurrences
换huàn
0.49011,451 co-occurrences
顶dǐng
0.3932,036 co-occurrences
身shēn
0.38910,536 co-occurrences
暖nuǎn
0.38518 co-occurrences
交jiāo
0.3789,948 co-occurrences
钟zhōng
0.3661,684 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

包办代替bāobàn dàitìHSK 5+

to take away somebody else's work; to run things all by oneself without consulting others

phrase
冒名顶替màomíngdǐngtìHSK 6+

to impersonate; pretend to be someone

phrase
替身演员tì shēn yǎn yuánHSK 5+

body double; stunt double

phrase
替天行道tìtiānxíngdàoHSK 5+

to enforce justice for the heavens

phrase
替罪羔羊tì zuì gāo yángHSK 6+

scapegoat; sacrificial lamb

phrase

Showing 5 of 6 idioms containing 替.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

替字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

tì zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .

The character "替" may be difficult to write, but its meaning is quite interesting.

Fx168 Finance NetworkFeb 2026

范式智能(06682.HK)澄清AI替代传闻:主营业务受益大模型迭代,前三季度...

fàn shì zhì néng ( 0 6 6 8 2 . H K ) chéng qīng A I tì dài chuán wén : zhǔ yíng yè wù shòu yì dà mó xíng dié dài , qián sān jì dù . . .

Paradigm Intelligence (06682.HK) clarifies rumors of AI substitution: the main business benefits from large model iterations, and in the first three quarters...

TvbsFeb 2026

...2度热爆!明锋面接力“春雨连发” 冷暖交替温差大

. . . 2 dù rè bào ! míng fēng miàn jiē lì chūn yǔ lián fā lěng nuǎn jiāo tì wēn chā dà

... 2 degrees hot! Mingfeng faced the "spring rain continuously" with a large temperature difference between cold and warmth

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

明起多波锋面快闪晴雨凉暖交替 吴德荣:228连假降雨扩大

míng qǐ duō bō fēng miàn kuài shǎn qíng yǔ liáng nuǎn jiāo tì wú dé róng : 2 2 8 lián jiǎ jiàng yǔ kuò dà

Tomorrow, multiple waves of frontal flashes alternating between sunny and rainy Wu Derong: 228 consecutive holiday rains expanded

LtnFeb 2026

过年替山猪尽孝 逸祥:只是做我该做的事

guò nián tì shān zhū jǐn xiào yì xiáng : zhī shì zuò wǒ gāi zuò de shì

Filial piety for the wild boar during the New Year Yixiang: Just do what I have to do

JiemianFeb 2026

...海关明起停止征收违法关税,特朗普还有哪些替代方案?

. . . hǎi guān míng qǐ tíng zhǐ zhēng shōu wéi fǎ guān shuì , tè lǎng pǔ hái yǒu nǎ xiē tì dài fāng àn ?

... Customs will stop imposing illegal tariffs tomorrow, what alternatives does Trump have?

Tatoeba

汤姆被玛丽替换下来。

Tāngmǔ bèi Mǎlì tìhuàn xiàlai.

Tom was replaced by Mary.

Tatoeba

替我照顾田中先生!

Tì wǒ zhàogu Tiánzhōng xiānsheng!

Take care of Mr. Tanaka for me!

Tatoeba

你能代替我出席会议吗?

Nǐ néng dàitì wǒ chūxí huìyì ma?

Can you fill in for me at the meeting?

Tatoeba

塑料代替了许多传统的原料。

Sùliào dàitì le xǔduō chuántǒng de yuánliào.

Plastics have taken the place of many conventional materials.

Character Family

曰 Radical Family — Characters sharing the say radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced tì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 替 (tì) mean in Chinese?
替 (tì) primarily means "to substitute for." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1078 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 替 have?
替 is written with 12 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 替?
The radical associated with 替 is 曰 (say). This radical appears in many characters related to say.
What are the components of 替?
替 is composed of: 夫 (structural), 夫 (structural), 日 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱⿰夫夫日 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 替?
Common words with 替 include: 代替 (dài tì, "to replace"); 替代 (tì dài, "to substitute for"); 替换 (tì huàn, "to exchange"); 接替 (jiē tì, "to replace"); 替身 (tì shēn, "stand-in"). There are over 48 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 替 (tì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation tì: 体 (body), 提 (to lift, to mention), 题 (topic), 梯 (ladder, stairs), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 替 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 替 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 替 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.