What does 的 mean in Chinese?

的 (de) means "of, 's (possessive particle), (possessive particle)" in Chinese. The new HSK exam expects you to recognise it at HSK 1.

How do you write 的?

的 is written with 8 strokes, starting from the 白 (white) radical and following standard Chinese stroke order (top to bottom, left to right). See the interactive stroke-order tool for the full animation.

What is the radical of 的?

The radical of 的 is 白 (white, Kangxi radical #106). Other common HSK characters using the same radical include 白, 百.

How many strokes does 的 have?

The Chinese character 的 has 8 strokes.

What HSK level is 的?

On the new HSK exam syllabus, 的 is a character to recognise at HSK 1 and to write by hand at HSK 2 (the handwriting list HSK 1 and 2 share).

的 (de): Meaning, Stroke Order, Radical & Examples

的

of, 's (possessive particle), (possessive particle)

HSK 1 character 8 strokes Radical: 白 (white)

Quick Answer

的 (de) means "of, 's (possessive particle), (possessive particle)" with 8 strokes, radical 白 (white), HSK 1 on the new exam.

Full dictionary entry for 的 →Animated stroke-order for 的 →

Pronunciation

Meaning

Primary: of

Other meanings:

's (possessive particle)
(possessive particle)

Etymology

Oracle-bone origin

的 does not appear in oracle-bone script. It is a later phono-semantic compound, first attested in seal script, combining 白 (white, bright) as the semantic component and 勺 (ladle) as the phonetic. The original meaning was 'bright, clear, bullseye', and 白 was chosen because it carries the sense of visible paleness.

Form evolution

Seal script shows 白 on the left and 勺 on the right in a clean two-part layout. Clerical script squared both components and fixed the modern proportions. The 楷书 form is essentially identical to the clerical form, with 白 unchanged and 勺 reduced to its compact three-stroke shape.

How the meaning evolved

The original noun sense was 'target, bullseye', preserved in 目的 (aim, purpose) and 中的 (hit the mark). In late classical and early vernacular Chinese 的 was borrowed as a grammatical particle, first marking possession and attribution, and is now the single most common character in modern written Mandarin. The noun reading dì and the adjectival reading dí (as in 的确, 'indeed') survive alongside the grammatical particle de.

Cultural note

的 is statistically the most frequent character in modern Chinese, accounting for roughly 4 percent of all characters in typical text. Learners often overlook that 的 has three readings (de, dí, dì) with quite different meanings, and that the grammatical particle is a semantic bleaching of the original 'target' sense.

Mnemonic

A white ladle marks possession

Decomposition

的=白radical+勺component

Breaking a character into its components makes it far easier to recall. Each component above links to its own detail page.

Basic info

Pinyin	de
Meanings	of, 's (possessive particle), (possessive particle)
Stroke count	8 strokes
Radical	白 (#106: white)
New HSK exam	Recognise at HSK 1, write by hand at HSK 1-2
Frequency	#383 most common

Example sentences

这是我的书。
Zhè shì wǒ de shū.
This is my book.
From 的 (HSK 1)
目的很明确。
Mùdì hěn míngquè.
The objective is clear.
From 目的 (HSK 4)
他笑得像个孩子似的。
Tā xiào de xiàng ge háizi shìde.
He laughs like a child.
From 似的 (HSK 5)