Fluentide
HSK 1

学校

school

nounneutral1 episode
xué2nd tone
xiào4th tone

HSK level

1
2
3
4
5
6
Pinyin
xuéxiào
Part of speech
noun
Level
HSK 1
Strokes
18
Register
neutral
Measure word
所 / 个
In episodes
1

Stroke order for 学校

学校 is written with 18 strokes (: 8, : 10). The animation replays automatically.

What does 学校 mean?

学校 (xuéxiào) is the Chinese word for 'school' — the institution, the building, and by extension the community of students and teachers.

It covers every level: primary school (小学), middle school (中学), high school (高中), university (大学), and language schools. Two notes for learners: first, the standard measure word is (一所学校 'one school'), though casual speech often uses ; using in writing or formal speech sounds more polished.

Second, the verbs that pair with 学校 are slightly different from English — Chinese says 去学校 'go to school' for the action, 上学 'attend school' as a daily routine verb, and 在学校 'be at school' for location. Literally 'study + building / school,' 学校 first appeared in classical texts and survived intact into modern Mandarin.

Character by character

xuéto study; learn
+
xiàoschool
=
学校

Memory hook: 学 (study) + 校 (school building) — the place where studying happens.

Hear 学校 in real episodes

学校 appears in 1 Fluentide podcast episode at natural native speed — each with the full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.

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Example sentences

我每天去学校。

Wǒ měitiān qù xuéxiào.

I go to school every day.

neutral

我们学校很大。

Wǒmen xuéxiào hěn dà.

Our school is very big.

spoken

学校里有很多学生。

Xuéxiào lǐ yǒu hěn duō xuésheng.

There are many students in the school.

neutral

他在一所大学校工作。

Tā zài yì suǒ dà xuéxiào gōngzuò.

He works at a big school.

neutral

Common phrases with 学校

去学校qù xuéxiàoto go to school
在学校zài xuéxiàoat school
我们学校wǒmen xuéxiàoour school
学校里xuéxiào lǐinside / within the school
好学校hǎo xuéxiàoa good school

Synonyms

校园xiàoyuán

校园 means 'campus' — the physical grounds of a school. 学校 is the institution itself. 校园里 'on campus' vs 学校里 'in/at the school.'

Don't confuse 学校 with

上学shàng xué

上学 is a verb meaning 'attend school / go to school (as a routine).' 学校 is the noun ('school'). 'My kid goes to school' uses 上学; 'my school is big' uses 学校.

学习xuéxí

学习 means 'to study / learning.' 学校 is the place where 学习 happens. Don't say 我去学习 when you mean 'I'm going to school' — say 我去学校 or 我去上学.

FAQ

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