to encourage; urge on
HSK level
鼓励 is written with 20 strokes (鼓: 13, 励: 7). The animation replays automatically.
鼓励 (gǔlì) is a verb meaning to encourage, urge on, or motivate — to spur someone toward action or hearten them through difficulty with supportive words or incentives.
It commonly takes a person plus an action: 老师鼓励学生多提问 'the teacher encourages students to ask more questions.' It can also be a noun ('encouragement'): 谢谢你的鼓励 'thanks for your encouragement.' Unlike English 'encourage,' which can be neutral or even faintly negative ('encourage bad habits'), 鼓励 is almost always positive and well-intentioned — you cannot naturally use it for encouraging something harmful; that would be 助长 or 纵容.
Register is neutral, fitting classrooms, workplaces, and everyday speech. Compare 支持 (support, backing) and 表扬 (praise for something already done), whereas 鼓励 pushes toward future effort.
Character by character
Memory hook: 鼓 (beat a drum) + 励 (urge on) — beat the drum to urge someone onward.
谢谢你的鼓励，我会努力的。
Xièxie nǐ de gǔlì, wǒ huì nǔlì de.
Thanks for your encouragement, I'll work hard.
spoken
父母应该多鼓励孩子。
Fùmǔ yīnggāi duō gǔlì háizi.
Parents should encourage their children more.
neutral
老师鼓励我们大胆表达自己的想法。
Lǎoshī gǔlì wǒmen dàdǎn biǎodá zìjǐ de xiǎngfǎ.
The teacher encourages us to express our ideas boldly.
neutral
政府出台了一系列鼓励创业的政策。
Zhèngfǔ chūtái le yíxìliè gǔlì chuàngyè de zhèngcè.
The government introduced a series of policies to encourage entrepreneurship.
written
激励 is stronger and more formal — to inspire or incentivize toward a goal, often in management or motivational contexts. 鼓励 is warmer and more everyday, closer to 'cheer on.'
支持 means to support or back someone's position or action. 鼓励 specifically pushes someone to act or persist. You can 支持 a plan silently, but 鼓励 involves active encouragement.
Acquire it by listening
Fluentide turns real news into Chinese listening at your exact level, so words like 鼓励 show up again and again in natural sentences — with pinyin and translation every time. No flashcards. Free to start.
