How to write Chinese characters: stroke order, the 米字格 grid & pinyin
A short guide to the rules behind Chinese handwriting — stroke order, the practice grid, and the two pronunciation systems — so you get the most out of StrokeGrid.
How Chinese stroke order works
Stroke order (筆順 / 笔顺) is the fixed sequence in which the strokes of a Chinese character are written. It isn't arbitrary — it follows a handful of consistent rules that make characters quicker to write and better balanced:
- Top to bottom — upper strokes before lower ones (三, 言).
- Left to right — left strokes before right ones (川, 你).
- Horizontal before vertical — when strokes cross (十, 干).
- Outside before inside, closing the frame last (回, 國).
- Centre before symmetrical sides (小, 水).
Writing characters in the correct order makes your handwriting look natural, helps you memorise characters more quickly, and is what handwriting-recognition input methods expect. StrokeGrid animates every character one stroke at a time so you can see exactly where each line starts and ends.
What is a 米字格 grid?
A 米字格 (mǐzìgé) is the practice square drawn around each character. It's crossed by horizontal, vertical and two diagonal guide lines — the pattern resembles the character 米 ("rice"), which is where the name comes from.
Those guide lines mark the centre and proportions of the square, so you can position each stroke evenly and keep your characters balanced. It's the same grid generations of students have used in Chinese handwriting workbooks, and practising inside it trains your eye for spacing far better than writing on a blank line.
Pinyin, bopomofo & pronunciation
Each character can be labelled two ways. Pinyin (e.g. nǐ) uses the Latin alphabet with tone marks — the romanisation standard in mainland China. Bopomofo, also called zhuyin (注音, ㄅㄆㄇㄈ), uses phonetic symbols and is the system standard in Taiwan.
In the tool, pinyin appears above each character and bopomofo runs down the right-hand side. Tap Speak to hear the whole phrase read aloud, so you can connect each written character to its sound and tone.
How to use StrokeGrid
- Type one or more Chinese characters into the box and press Enter.
- Watch each character animate in correct stroke order inside its 米字格.
- Use Replay, Play all or Loop to repeat, and the Speed slider to slow the animation down for practice.
- Toggle Outline off to hide the character and test yourself from memory.