乒乓球
table tennis; ping-pong
HSK level
- Pinyin
- pīngpāngqiú
- Part of speech
- noun
- Level
- HSK 4
- Strokes
- 23
- Register
- neutral
- Measure word
- 个 / 场
- In episodes
- 1
Stroke order for 乒乓球
乒乓球 is written with 23 strokes (乒: 6, 乓: 6, 球: 11). The animation replays automatically.
What does 乒乓球 mean?
乒乓球 (pīngpāngqiú) is a noun meaning both the sport of table tennis (ping-pong) and the small ball used to play it — context tells you which.
It is China's unofficial national sport, so the word carries cultural weight far beyond a casual pastime; 国球 (guóqiú, 'national ball') is a nickname for it. Two features delight learners. First, the name is onomatopoeic: 乒 (pīng) and 乓 (pāng) imitate the pock-pock sound of the ball bouncing, and the two characters are near-mirror images built from 兵 (soldier).
Second, unlike English where 'table tennis' and 'ping-pong' can differ in formality, 乒乓球 covers both registers. To say 'play table tennis,' pair it with 打 (dǎ): 打乒乓球. The place you play is 乒乓球台 (the table) or 乒乓球馆 (the hall).
Character by character
Memory hook: 乒 and 乓 are 兵 (soldier) with one leg kicked out each way — two mirror-image characters that literally sound like 'ping-pong.'
Hear 乒乓球 in real episodes
乒乓球 appears in 1 Fluentide podcast episode at natural native speed. Each sentence plays at the easiest difficulty it exists in — switch it to hear the same moment at your level, with full pinyin and English throughout.
匹克球的拍子，很像乒乓球的拍子。
The pickleball paddle is a lot like a ping-pong paddle.
Pickleball Is Taking Off in China: 8 Million Regular Players and 1,000 Tournaments a Year
Example sentences
我们下午去打乒乓球吧。
Wǒmen xiàwǔ qù dǎ pīngpāngqiú ba.
Let's go play table tennis this afternoon.
spoken
乒乓球是中国的国球。
Pīngpāngqiú shì Zhōngguó de guóqiú.
Table tennis is China's national sport.
neutral
他从小就喜欢打乒乓球。
Tā cóngxiǎo jiù xǐhuan dǎ pīngpāngqiú.
He has loved playing ping-pong since he was little.
neutral
乒乓球比赛下周开始。
Pīngpāngqiú bǐsài xià zhōu kāishǐ.
The table tennis tournament starts next week.
written
Common phrases with 乒乓球
Don't confuse 乒乓球 with
羽毛球 is badminton (played with a feathered shuttlecock and a net). 乒乓球 is table tennis. Both are popular in China but are different sports.
网球 is tennis, played on a full court. 乒乓球 is the miniature table version. Easy to mix up in English translation ('table tennis' vs 'tennis').
FAQ
Related words from the same episodes
Acquire it by listening
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