仔 (zǐ): (bound form) (of domestic animals or fowl) young, (bound form) fine, detailed

仔 (zǐ) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) (of domestic animals or fowl) young.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 亻 (structural) and 子 (structural). It ranks #1562 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 仔 a person 亻 keeping watch over a child 子; 子 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 亻 (person) appears in many related characters such as 人 (rén, person), 什 (shén, what), 今 (jīn, now).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) (of domestic animals or fowl) young
  2. (bound form) fine
  3. detailed

Etymology & Origin

仔

ideographicA person 亻 keeping watch over a child 子; 子 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰亻子 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 仔

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
仔细adjectivezǐ xìcareful4
牛仔裤nounniú zǎi kùjeans5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
牛仔nounniú zǎicowboy
猪仔nounzhū zǎipiglet
牛仔布nounniú zǎi bùdenim
打工仔noundǎ gōng zǎiyoung worker
仔鸡nounzǐ jīchick
公仔面noungōng zǎi miànbrand of Hong Kong instant noodles
担仔面noundàn zǎi miànta-a noodles or danzai noodles, popular snack originating from Tainan
三七仔nounsān qī zǐ(slang) pimp
公仔noungōng zǎidoll
菜市仔名cài shì zǐ míng(Tw) popular given name (one that will turn many heads if you shout it at a marketplace) (from Taiwanese 菜市仔名, Tai-lo...
马仔nounmǎ zǎihenchman
产仔chǎn zǐto give birth (animals)
狗仔队noungǒu zǎi duìpaparazzi
狗仔式noungǒu zǎi shìdog paddle (swimming)
仔密zǐ mì(textiles) closely woven
37
Total compounds
19
As first character
51
As last character
30
As middle character

仔 appears in 37 compound words: 19 as the first character, 51 as the last, and 30 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 仔 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

庄zhuāng
0.5409,554 co-occurrences
牛niú
0.5025,814 co-occurrences
御yù
0.49714 co-occurrences
惑huò
0.4751,454 co-occurrences
煲bāo
0.463231 co-occurrences
烂làn
0.46213 co-occurrences
裤kù
0.457376 co-occurrences
逝shì
0.44716 co-occurrences
狗gǒu
0.4451,686 co-occurrences
细xì
0.4372,652 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他做事很仔细,每个细节都不放过。

Tā zuòshì hěn zǐxì, měi gè xìjié dōu bù fàngguò.

He works very carefully, not letting go of any detail.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

烟仔虎与烟仔傻傻分不清?曹铭宗抓包转运站画错...

yān zǐ hǔ yǔ yān zǐ shǎ shǎ fēn bù qīng ? cáo míng zōng zhuā bāo zhuǎn yùn zhàn huà cuò . . .

Can't tell the difference between a smoker and a smoker? Cao Mingzong grabbed the bag transfer station and drew the wrong one...

StheadlineFeb 2026

前TVB「御用爛仔」游飈猝逝終年57歲 好友黃文標叫救護車...

qián yù yòng 爛 zǐ yóu 飈 猝 shì 終 nián 歲 hǎo yǒu 黃 wén 標 jiào jiù 護 車 . . .

[Translation pending - quota exceeded]

StheadlineFeb 2026

前TVB“御用烂仔”游飚脑出血猝逝终年57岁 转行除甲醛捱...

qián T V B yù yòng làn zǐ yóu 飚 nǎo chū xiě 猝 shì zhōng nián 5 7 suì zhuǎn háng chú jiǎ 醛 捱 . . .

Former TVB "Royal Rotten Boy" You Biao died suddenly of cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 57 and changed careers to remove formaldehyde...

StheadlineFeb 2026

护花使者|广东美女拜年遭亲戚催婚 6岁侄仔妙语反击|有片

hù huā shǐ zhě guǎng dōng měi nǚ bài nián zāo qīn qī cuī hūn 6 suì zhí zǐ miào yǔ fǎn jī yǒu piàn

Flower Protector|Guangdong beauty was urged to get married by relatives for New Year's greetings, and her 6-year-old nephew counterattacked with a witty remark|There is a film

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

...稅額一成 預算案料難大派糖 籲多照顧打工仔

. . . 稅 額 yī chéng 預 suàn àn liào 難 dà pài táng 籲 duō zhào 顧 dǎ gōng zǐ

... Tax rate at 10% of the budget is unlikely to give out candies, calling for more care for wage earners.

Tatoeba

仔细检查后发现,该头骨被重击碎裂。

Zǐxì jiǎnchá hòu fāxiàn, gāi tóugǔ bèi zhòngjī suìliè.

After careful examination, it can be seen that the skull was smashed to pieces.

Tatoeba

汤姆仔细地给玛丽解释。

Tāngmǔ zǐxì de gěi Mǎlì jiěshì.

Tom explained it to Mary very carefully.

Tatoeba

仔细搜寻敌人可能藏身的灌木丛。

Zǐxì sōuxún dírén kěnéng cángshēn de guànmùcóng.

Investigate thoroughly the bushes where the enemy may be hiding.

Tatoeba

汤姆很仔细,不是么?

Tāngmǔ hěn zǐxì, bù shì me?

Tom is careful, isn't he?

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 仔 (zǐ) mean in Chinese?
仔 (zǐ) primarily means "(bound form) (of domestic animals or fowl) young." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #1562 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 仔 have?
仔 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 仔?
The radical associated with 仔 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 仔?
仔 is composed of: 亻 (structural), 子 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻子 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 仔?
Common words with 仔 include: 仔细 (zǐ xì, "careful"); 牛仔 (niú zǎi, "cowboy"); 牛仔裤 (niú zǎi kù, "jeans"); 猪仔 (zhū zǎi, "piglet"); 牛仔布 (niú zǎi bù, "denim"). There are over 37 compound words containing this character.
Is 仔 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 仔 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 仔 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.