Chinese Stroke Order: The 7 Basic Rules with Examples
May 2026
The seven basic Chinese stroke order rules, each with a character example — from horizontal before vertical to closing frames last. Watch the animations and practice with free printable worksheets.
Every Chinese character is written with its strokes in a fixed sequence. The sequence is not random — it follows a small set of rules that apply to the vast majority of characters. Learning these rules means you never have to memorize stroke order character by character: once you know the rules, you can write almost anything correctly on the first try.
Why stroke order matters
- Speed: following the natural flow of the strokes is faster than drawing a character stroke by stroke.
- Shape: the rules produce balanced characters — write 人 with the correct order and it looks right.
- Dictionaries and input: many Chinese dictionaries and handwriting input methods still rely on stroke order.
- Reading others: handwritten Chinese is much easier to read when you know how it was written.
The 7 basic rules
Each rule below comes with a character that shows it in action. The number under each character is its stroke count — the example cards link to full stroke-by-stroke pages.
Write the horizontal stroke 一 first, then the vertical stroke 丨. Same rule in 土, 干 and 王.
Open 十 character page →The left-falling stroke 撇 comes before the right-falling stroke 捺. Same in 八 and 大.
Open 人 character page →Top stroke first, then middle, then bottom. Same in 二, 王 and 早.
Open 三 character page →Finish the left part 日 before starting the right part 月. Same in 林, 好 and 你.
Open 明 character page →Draw the outer frame first, then the strokes inside. Same in 月, 风 and 周.
Open 同 character page →Draw the outer frame, write 玉 inside, and close the box with the final horizontal stroke. Same in 回, 四 and 园.
Open 国 character page →Write the center 竖钩 first, then the left and right dots. Same in 水, 办 and 永.
Open 小 character page →A few characters bend these rules, and some strokes in traditional characters behave differently. But if you follow these seven rules, you will be right about ninety percent of the time — and the exceptions become easy to remember once the rules are second nature.
See the rules in action
The fastest way to internalize stroke order is to watch it. Our stroke animation page plays the strokes of any character in the correct sequence — type 十, 人, 国 or any other character and watch it write itself.
Watch the animation for 国, then generate a practice sheet with all seven example characters: 十人三明同国小.
Watch stroke animationsAfter watching, write them yourself. Our worksheet generator turns any characters into printable tianzige practice sheets — type the seven characters and print an A4 sheet in seconds.
Print a practice sheet for 十人三明同国小 and write them with the correct stroke order.
Generate a worksheet