人
person; people
HSK level
- Pinyin
- rén
- Part of speech
- noun
- Level
- HSK 1
- Strokes
- 2
- Register
- neutral
- Measure word
- 个 / 位
- In episodes
- 1
Stroke order for 人
人 is written with 2 strokes. The animation replays automatically.
What does 人 mean?
人 (rén) is the basic noun for 'person' or 'people' and one of the first characters every Chinese child learns to write — it's just two strokes, picturing a standing person with legs apart.
It's both singular and plural: 一个人 means 'one person,' 很多人 means 'many people,' and bare 人 in context can mean 'humans / mankind.' It pairs with country names to form nationality words: 中国人 (Chinese person), 美国人 (American), 法国人 (French person).
It also appears in countless compounds: 男人 (man), 女人 (woman), 家人 (family member), 大人 (adult). In English the line between 'person' and 'people' depends on number; in Chinese 人 covers both, and the measure word (个 for casual, 位 for polite) does the counting work.
Memory hook: Two strokes — legs of a standing figure. Literally a stick-figure person.
Hear 人 in real episodes
人 appears in 1 Fluentide podcast episode at natural native speed. Each sentence plays at the easiest difficulty it exists in — switch it to hear the same moment at your level, with full pinyin and English throughout.
人要帮普通手表。
People have to help ordinary watches.
Rolex Padellone Needs One Date Fix a Year
Example sentences
我是中国人。
Wǒ shì Zhōngguó rén.
I'm Chinese.
neutral
这儿有很多人。
Zhèr yǒu hěn duō rén.
There are a lot of people here.
spoken
他是一个好人。
Tā shì yí ge hǎo rén.
He's a good person.
neutral
我一个人去。
Wǒ yí ge rén qù.
I'll go alone.
spoken
Common phrases with 人
Synonyms
人们 explicitly means 'people' (plural, generic), used in writing and formal contexts: 人们都喜欢 ('everyone likes'). Spoken Chinese usually just says 人 or 大家.
Don't confuse 人 with
入 means 'to enter' and looks almost identical to 人 — the top stroke goes the other way. 入 starts with the rightward stroke first; 人 starts with the leftward stroke. Tiny shape difference, completely different meaning.
FAQ
Related words from the same episodes
Acquire it by listening
Meet 人 again — in real Chinese, at your level.
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