医生
doctor; physician
HSK level
- Pinyin
- yīshēng
- Part of speech
- noun
- Level
- HSK 1
- Strokes
- 12
- Register
- neutral
- Measure word
- 位 / 个
- In episodes
- 4
Stroke order for 医生
医生 is written with 12 strokes (医: 7, 生: 5). The animation replays automatically.
What does 医生 mean?
医生 (yīshēng) is the standard Chinese word for 'doctor' — a medical physician of any specialty.
The literal reading is 'medicine person / medicine-born,' and like 老师 (teacher), it's used both as a job title and as direct address: you say 医生 or 李医生 (Dr. Li) to your doctor's face, never the Western 'Mr./Dr. + surname' pattern alone.
Two points for English speakers: first, 医生 covers MDs only — not PhDs. A 'Doctor of Philosophy' is 博士 (bóshì), a completely different word. Second, in northern Chinese speech and traditional Chinese medicine clinics, 大夫 (dàifu) is interchangeable with 医生, though 医生 dominates in writing and southern speech.
Note: 医生 is also a term of address — you call your doctor '医生' or '李医生' (Dr. Li) directly. Hospitals and Chinese-medicine contexts sometimes use 大夫 (dàifu) instead, especially in northern China.
Character by character
Memory hook: 医 (medicine) + 生 (a person) = a medicine person = doctor.
Hear 医生 in real episodes
医生 appears in 4 Fluentide podcast episodes 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.
飞机上，有一个坐飞机的医生，一直和他在一起。
A doctor who was a passenger on the plane stayed with him the whole time.
A FlyDubai Co-Pilot Attacked His Captain With the Cockpit's Own Axe. Passengers Broke In and Saved the Plane.
2004年，有一个医生，看了10个人。
In 2004, a doctor studied 10 people.
Tongue Scrapers Beat Toothbrushes at Fighting Bad Breath — and Your Tongue's Bacteria May Help Lower Your Blood Pressure
很多人去看医生，也吃了药。
Lots of people go to see a doctor, and take medicine.
ADHD May Not Be a Problem of 'Attention' at All
有医生说，有的人看这个小东西，会睡得不好。
Doctors say some people who check these little devices end up sleeping worse.
The Economist's Joke Memo: A Company Tries to Fix Its Staff's Sleep, and Everything Goes Wrong
Example sentences
我妈妈是医生。
Wǒ māma shì yīshēng.
My mom is a doctor.
spoken
我要去看医生。
Wǒ yào qù kàn yīshēng.
I need to go see a doctor.
spoken
他是个好医生。
Tā shì gè hǎo yīshēng.
He's a good doctor.
neutral
李医生，您好！
Lǐ yīshēng, nín hǎo!
Hello, Dr. Li!
polite
Common phrases with 医生
Synonyms
Don't confuse 医生 with
Frequently asked questions
Related words from the same episodes
Acquire it by listening
Meet 医生 again — in real Chinese, at your level.
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