年级
grade; year (in school)
HSK level
- Pinyin
- niánjí
- Part of speech
- noun
- Level
- HSK 3
- Strokes
- 12
- Register
- neutral
- Measure word
- 个
Stroke order for 年级
年级 is written with 12 strokes (年: 6, 级: 6). The animation replays automatically.
What does 年级 mean?
年级 (niánjí) is the noun for a grade or year level in school, from primary school through university.
It refers to the entire cohort of students at the same stage — first grade, ninth grade, freshman year — not to a single classroom. Chinese counts grades straight through: 小学一年级 is first grade, 初中三年级 is ninth grade (third year of middle school), 高中二年级 is eleventh grade. Two things trip up English speakers: first, 年级 is not the same as 班 (bān), which is the specific class section a student is assigned to within a grade; second, it does not mean a letter grade or a test score — for that use 成绩 (chéngjì) or 分数 (fēnshù).
Common question: 你上几年级？ ('What grade are you in?').
Character by character
Memory hook: Year + level = year-level = what grade you're in.
Example sentences
你上几年级？
Nǐ shàng jǐ niánjí?
What grade are you in?
spoken
我女儿今年上三年级。
Wǒ nǚ'ér jīnnián shàng sān niánjí.
My daughter is in third grade this year.
neutral
我们是同年级的同学。
Wǒmen shì tóng niánjí de tóngxué.
We are classmates in the same grade.
neutral
他比我高一个年级。
Tā bǐ wǒ gāo yí ge niánjí.
He's one grade above me.
spoken
高年级的学生要帮助低年级的同学。
Gāo niánjí de xuésheng yào bāngzhù dī niánjí de tóngxué.
Upper-grade students should help younger-grade classmates.
written
Common phrases with 年级
Synonyms
级 alone means 'level' or 'rank' in many contexts (一级, 高级). 年级 is specifically school year. Use 级 for ranks and tiers, 年级 only for school.
学年 means the academic year as a time period (the 2025-2026 学年). 年级 is the student's grade level. 'I'm in third grade' uses 年级; 'this academic year' uses 学年.
Don't confuse 年级 with
FAQ
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