女儿
daughter
nǚ'ér
What does 女儿 mean?
女儿 (nǚ'ér) is the standard word for 'daughter' — the female child of one's parents. The apostrophe in the pinyin (nǚ'ér) is required to show that ér starts a new syllable; without it, 'nüer' could ambiguously read as one syllable. The pair word for son is 儿子 (érzi). Like other Chinese kinship terms, 女儿 is gender-specific: there's no neutral way to say 'kid' that defaults to daughter.
If you don't want to specify gender, use 孩子 (háizi, 'child'). 女儿 is used in every register — parents talking about their kid, news articles, formal speeches at weddings. Two cultural notes: in older generations, 'having a daughter' (生女儿 / 有女儿) carried different social weight than having a son, though that's faded. And on family forms, 女儿 is the row label next to 儿子.
Character breakdown
woman; female
child; offspring
Memory hook: 女 (female) + 儿 (child) = 女儿, daughter. Literally 'female child.'
Measure word for 女儿
Example sentences
我有一个女儿。
Wǒ yǒu yí ge nǚ'ér.
I have a daughter.
neutral
他的女儿在上学。
Tā de nǚ'ér zài shàngxué.
His daughter is in school.
neutral
我女儿今年五岁。
Wǒ nǚ'ér jīnnián wǔ suì.
My daughter is five this year.
spoken
你女儿叫什么名字？
Nǐ nǚ'ér jiào shénme míngzi?
What's your daughter's name?
spoken
Common phrases with 女儿
Synonyms
闺女 is a warmer, more colloquial 'daughter / girl,' common in northern dialects and informal speech. Parents calling their daughter affectionately may say 闺女. 女儿 is the neutral standard.
千金 is an old, polite/literary way to say 'your daughter' (lit. 'a thousand pieces of gold'), still used in very formal compliments. Daily speech: 女儿.
Don't confuse 女儿 with
孩子 means 'child' regardless of gender. 女儿 specifically means daughter. If gender is unknown or doesn't matter, use 孩子.
女孩 (or 女孩儿) means 'girl' in general — any female child or young woman. 女儿 is specifically YOUR daughter (the relationship word). 她是一个女孩 = 'she's a girl'; 她是我女儿 = 'she's my daughter.'
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