Chinese character practice sheets

What each row looks like

Each character gets one row. The top line shows its pinyin, meaning and stroke order; below it come the model, three faint copies to trace and empty grids for writing on your own.

1. 人rén · person

2. 好hǎo · good

3. 学xué · to learn

田字格 and 米字格: the two practice grids

Stroke order rules to know first

Most characters follow a handful of rules. Learn these six and the stroke order row on each sheet will start to feel predictable.

• 三Top before bottom. Write the three horizontal strokes from the top down.
• 你Left before right. Write the left part 亻 first, then the right part.
• 十Horizontal before vertical. The horizontal stroke comes first when the two cross.
• 人Left-falling before right-falling. The stroke going down to the left comes before the one going right.
• 国Outside before inside, then close. Draw the frame, fill the inside, and seal the bottom last.
• 小Middle before the sides. The center hook comes first, then the dots on each side.

A 10-minute daily routine

Three to five new characters a day is enough. At that pace you finish the 100 HSK 1–2 characters in about a month.

1. 1

   Watch the stroke order (2 min)

   Look at the stroke order row for each new character, or open it on the site to watch it being written. Say the pinyin out loud.

2. 2

   Trace the faint characters (3 min)

   Go over the three light gray characters with a pen, following the same order. Slow is fine: the goal is the right order and direction.

3. 3

   Write it on your own (3 min)

   Fill the empty grids without looking at the model. Use the dashed lines to keep each part in the right place.

4. 4

   Check and review (2 min)

   Compare your last character with the model and circle any stroke that looks off. Tomorrow, write yesterday’s characters once before starting new ones.

Prefer to practice on screen? The handwriting trainer animates every HSK character and checks each stroke you draw.

Questions