儿 (ér) is a Chinese character meaning “a child”. It is written from 丿 (left-falling stroke) and 乚 (bent hook), side by side, and takes 2 strokes.
Build the character for “child; son”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
丿 + 乚
Left–right structure
Structure from: Unicode U+513F, Unicode radical 10, and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection
Memory aid
Picture the left-falling stroke (丿) and bent hook (乚) as a child's two legs.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
2 strokes
In real words
- 儿子ér zison儿 = ér
- 儿童ér tóngchild; children儿 = ér
- 女儿nǚ érdaughter儿 = érHSK 1
- 幼儿yòu éryoung child; infant儿 = ér
- 幼儿园yòu ér yuánkindergarten; nursery school儿 = ér
- 婴儿yīng'érbaby; infant儿 = ér
Go deeper
All readings
child; son
a child; a son; a suffix used in some words
孩子；儿子；也可在部分词语中作后缀。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 儿子ér zison儿 = ér
- 儿童ér tóngchild; children儿 = ér
- 女儿nǚ érdaughter儿 = érHSK 1
- 幼儿yòu éryoung child; infant儿 = ér
- 幼儿园yòu ér yuánkindergarten; nursery school儿 = ér
- 婴儿yīng'érbaby; infant儿 = ér
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 儿 mean?
儿 (ér) means a child; a son; a suffix used in some words.
How do you pronounce 儿?
It is pronounced ér.
What parts is 儿 made of?
丿 (left-falling stroke) and 乚 (bent hook), side by side. The recorded source is: Unicode U+513F, Unicode radical 10, and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 儿 have?
2. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 儿?
儿. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 儿?
Common ones are 儿子 and 儿童. The reading of 儿 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.