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Chinese stroke order rules: the basics

Why stroke order matters

Nobody will fail to understand you because you wrote one stroke before another. But the correct order teaches your hand a fixed path: the character comes out the same every time, you write faster, you remember its shape better, and your handwriting stays readable when you're in a hurry.

The 7 basic rules

1. Horizontal before vertical

Example: 十 (shí, ten). The horizontal line, then the vertical one.

2. Left-falling before right-falling

Example: 人 (rén, person). The stroke going down to the left, then the one going down to the right.

3. Top to bottom

Example: 三 (sān, three). The three lines, from the top one to the bottom one.

4. Left to right

Example: 川 (chuān, river). From the line on the left to the line on the right.

5. Outside before inside

Examples: 月 (yuè, moon) and 同 (tóng, same). The outline, then what goes inside.

6. Inside before closing the frame

Examples: 回 (huí, to return) and 国 (guó, country). The open frame, then the inside, and finally the bottom line that closes it.

7. In symmetrical characters, center first

Examples: 小 (xiǎo, small) and 水 (shuǐ, water). The middle stroke, then the two sides.

These rules work together. In 国 (country), for example, you write the open frame, then the inside from top to bottom, and finally the line that closes the frame.

The basic strokes

China's official standard groups all strokes into five main forms. All the others are variants of these five:

Said in this order, the five names make a sequence that's widely used in China to remember them: 横竖撇点折.

Are there 32 strokes?

Lots of people search for “the 32 Chinese strokes”. That number comes from study materials that count 6 simple strokes plus 26 compound ones, but it isn't official: depending on the author, lists range from 29 to 35, and no national standard sets the total. What a standard (GF 2001-2001) does define is the turning strokes: 25 forms in printed characters.

The official standards

• 1997: the stroke order standard for the 7,000 commonly used characters.
• 2020: standard GF 0023-2020, in force since March 2021, which gives the order for each of the 8,105 standard characters and keeps the 1997 rules.

Differences between China, Taiwan and Japan

The order is almost always the same, but there are some well-known cases:

The order of 必 also differs between mainland China, Taiwan and Japan. If you study with materials from one country, follow that country's order.

How to practice

• Watch the animation first. Chinese dictionaries and apps show the stroke order for every character.
• Write it correctly three or four times, not fifty times wrong. Say its pronunciation out loud as you write it.
• Use grid paper (田字格, tiánzìgé), divided into four, to place each stroke and keep the proportions.
• Learn the most common components first. If you can write 口, 木 or 女, you can already write part of many other characters. We explain this in how to memorize Chinese characters.

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Frequently asked questions

Do you have to follow stroke order?

Not to be understood. But with the correct order, your handwriting comes out more even and faster, you remember each character's shape better, and your writing stays legible even when you write quickly.

How many basic strokes are there in Chinese?

China's official standard groups strokes into five main forms: horizontal, vertical, left-falling diagonal, dot and turning. The figure of 32 strokes that circulates in study materials isn't official: depending on the author, lists range from 29 to 35.

Is stroke order the same in China, Taiwan and Japan?

Almost always, but there are exceptions. For example, in China 右 starts with the horizontal stroke, and in Japan with the diagonal.

How do I find the stroke order of a character I don't know?

Chinese dictionaries and apps show stroke order animations. Pleco, for example, has them free for 500 characters (28,000 in the paid version), and Macalaoshi uses them in its writing mode.

What is a 田字格?

It's a practice grid divided into four equal parts that helps you place each stroke and keep the character's proportions.

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