Angle 1: Basic Strokes of Chinese Characters

A good first step in making Chinese characters less intimidating is identifying their most basic parts.

A number of unique, identifiable strokes (individual marks of the brush or pen) are used to write Chinese.

The chart below shows you the eleven most common strokes, giving the name and direction in which each should be drawn.

In these examples, they are colored red (and very big!) to help you pick them out.

NOTE