小
small; young; little
HSK level
- Pinyin
- xiǎo
- Part of speech
- adjective
- Level
- HSK 1
- Strokes
- 3
- Register
- neutral
- In episodes
- 2
Stroke order for 小
小 is written with 3 strokes. The animation replays automatically.
What does 小 mean?
小 (xiǎo) is the adjective 'small,' the opposite of 大 (dà, 'big').
It covers physical size (小猫 'small cat,' 小房子 'small house'), age in the sense of 'young' (他比我小 'he's younger than me'), and works as a prefix for nicknames and affectionate forms (小李 'Little Li / young Mr. Li'). Two things English speakers should know: first, 小 + surname is a very common informal way to address younger colleagues or friends — 小王, 小张 — roughly 'young Wang / Zhang'; flipping it with 老 + surname (老王 'old Wang') addresses older or familiar people respectfully; second, 小 is not the same as 少 — 小 is about SIZE, while 少 (shǎo) is about QUANTITY.
'A small amount' uses 少, not 小. 小心 (xiǎoxīn, 'careful,' literally 'small heart') is one of the most useful 小-compounds.
Memory hook: 小 is three little strokes — three tiny things, meaning 'small.'
Hear 小 in real episodes
小 appears in 2 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.
Yu喜欢看小说。
Yu likes reading novels.
A Hubei Man Copies Tomb-Robbing Novels and Gets Twelve Years in Prison
Trader Joe's卖一个小袋子，不到三美元，很多人想买。
Trader Joe's sells a small bag for less than three dollars, and many people want to buy it.
Coffee Shops Turn Tote Bags Into Branding
Example sentences
我有一只小猫。
Wǒ yǒu yī zhī xiǎo māo.
I have a small cat.
neutral
这个房子很小。
Zhège fángzi hěn xiǎo.
This house is very small.
neutral
他比我小三岁。
Tā bǐ wǒ xiǎo sān suì.
He's three years younger than me.
neutral
小心！
Xiǎoxīn!
Be careful!
spoken
Common phrases with 小
Don't confuse 小 with
小 = small in SIZE. 少 = few in QUANTITY. 小猫 'small cat' vs 猫少 'few cats.' The characters look alike (one extra stroke on 少), and beginners constantly confuse them. Remember: 小 is for one thing's size, 少 is for how many things there are.
校 ('school,' as in 学校) contains 小-like elements but is a completely different character. The 木 (tree) radical on the left distinguishes it.
Frequently asked questions
Related words from the same episodes
Acquire it by listening
Meet 小 again — in real Chinese, at your level.
You just saw 小 in 2 episodes. Fluentide keeps feeding you news episodes at your level, so this word — and thousands like it — resurface in real sentences until they stick. Full pinyin and translation every time. Free to start.