country; nation; state
HSK level
国家 is written with 18 strokes (国: 8, 家: 10). The animation replays automatically.
国家 (guójiā) means a 'country' or 'nation' — a sovereign political entity with land, people, and government.
It is the standard everyday word for 'country' (我去过五个国家 — I've been to five countries) and also covers 'state' in the sense of nation-state (国家政策 — national / state policy). The two characters together originally meant 'country and family,' reflecting the old idea that a nation is an extended household. Two notes for English speakers: first, when you want to say someone's home country, 国家 is fine, but Chinese also has 祖国 (zǔguó — 'motherland / homeland') for an emotional, patriotic sense. Second, for the U.
S. 'state' as in Texas or California, use 州 (zhōu); 国家 specifically means an independent country, not a sub-unit. As a modifier ('national'), 国家 + noun is extremely productive: 国家队 (national team), 国家公园 (national park).
Character by character
Memory hook: 国 'country' + 家 'home' — a country is the home of its people: nation.
国家 appears in 16 Fluentide podcast episodes at natural native speed — each with the full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
你去过几个国家？
Nǐ qù guò jǐ gè guójiā?
How many countries have you been to?
spoken
中国是一个大国家。
Zhōngguó shì yī gè dà guójiā.
China is a big country.
neutral
他想为自己的国家工作。
Tā xiǎng wèi zìjǐ de guójiā gōngzuò.
He wants to work for his country.
neutral
世界上有很多国家。
Shìjiè shàng yǒu hěn duō guójiā.
There are many countries in the world.
neutral
祖国 means 'motherland / homeland' — emotionally charged, used patriotically about one's own country (我爱我的祖国 — I love my motherland). 国家 is neutral and refers to any country, including one's own.
国 alone often appears inside country names (中国, 美国, 法国) but rarely stands alone as a noun meaning 'country' in modern Chinese. For 'a country,' use the full 国家.
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