茶
tea
HSK level
- Pinyin
- chá
- Part of speech
- noun
- Level
- HSK 1
- Strokes
- 9
- Register
- neutral
- Measure word
- 杯 / 壶
- In episodes
- 1
Stroke order for 茶
茶 is written with 9 strokes. The animation replays automatically.
What does 茶 mean?
茶 (chá) is the Chinese word for tea — the leaf, the drink, and by extension the social ritual built around it.
In daily speech 茶 covers everything from green tea (绿茶) and black tea (红茶, literally 'red tea') to oolong, jasmine, and bubble tea (奶茶). The register is fully neutral: you can use it with friends, in a restaurant, or in writing.
Two things differ from English: first, the default 茶 in Chinese culture is hot and unsweetened, so when ordering iced or sweet tea you have to say so; second, 红茶 means what English calls 'black tea' — Chinese names the tea after the color of the liquid, not the leaves. Native speakers also say 喝茶 (hē chá, 'drink tea') casually to mean 'come over and hang out.'
Memory hook: The 艹 (grass) radical sits on top of a tree (木) with a 人 (person) in between — a person picking tea leaves under the bushes.
Hear 茶 in real episodes
茶 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.
特朗普和习近平也喝了茶。
Trump and Xi Jinping also had tea.
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Example sentences
我想喝一杯茶。
Wǒ xiǎng hē yì bēi chá.
I'd like a cup of tea.
neutral
你喜欢什么茶？
Nǐ xǐhuan shénme chá?
What kind of tea do you like?
spoken
中国茶很有名。
Zhōngguó chá hěn yǒumíng.
Chinese tea is very famous.
neutral
周末来我家喝茶吧。
Zhōumò lái wǒ jiā hē chá ba.
Come over to my place for tea this weekend.
spoken
Common phrases with 茶
Don't confuse 茶 with
FAQ
Related words from the same episodes
Acquire it by listening
Meet 茶 again — in real Chinese, at your level.
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