Shapes in Chinese 🔷 The Complete Go To Guide

The Definitive Guide to Shapes in Chinese

Time for another useful vocabulary post – this time we talk about how to say Shapes in Chinese.

Learning the shapes in Chinese is actually pretty easy. Many of the shapes follow a pattern, that when you learn it, makes them really easy to remember.

PRO TIP – Like the months of the year and days of the week, once you learn the numbers in Chinese, it unlocks many further doors, and the same applies with Shapes in Chinese.

Before we get started, let’s actually learn the word for Shape in Chinese…

SHAPE IN CHINESE is 形状 xíng zhuàng

Moving on, another important thing to note…

If you don’t know the numbers in Chinese, it’s time to learn them now. Don’t worry, it takes minutes to master!

OK now we’ve successfully mastered the numbers, let’s show you how they apply to shapes in Chinese:

Shapes in Chinese – The 角形’s

Shapes in Chinese – Circle

Shapes in Chinese – Square

Shapes in Chinese – Rectangle

Shapes in Chinese – 3D Shapes in Chinese

BONUS – Our Shapes Quiz

The 角形’s

This group of shapes in Chinese are super easy to learn because they all follow the same structure which is simply:

Numbers of Sides + 角形 = Shape Name

See why the numbers are important now?

Let’s take an example… Triangle in Chinese.

Use our formula

Number of sides is 3, which in Chinese is 三 sān

+ 角形

makes 三角形

Super easy right…?!

This theory applies to some but not all of the shapes. Square for example, is not 四角形 (in fact that is quadrilateral) so be careful.

It does however, apply to the following shapes:

• Pentagon (literally five corner shape)
• Hexagon (literally six corner shape)
• Septagon (literally seven corner shape)
• Octagon (literally eight corner shape)

OK, now we’ve got those nailed down… it’s time to move onto some other commonly known shapes in Chinese…

Circle in Chinese

Circle in Chinese is 圆形 yuán xíng.

The literal translate here is “circle shape”

Circle can also just be referred to as 圆 without the 形

BONUS – in traditional Chinese 圆 becomes 圓.

Can you see the difference?

GREAT BLOG ALERT – If you aren’t sure about the differences between Simplified Mandarin and Traditional Mandarin, check out our article.

Square in Chinese

Square in Chinese is 方形 fāng xíng.

The literal translate here is “square shape”.

Here are some examples of 方形 fāngxíng used in a sentence.

• A shape has 4 sides
  • 一个方形有4个边
  • Yīgè fāngxíng yǒu 4 gè biān

• This square is blue
  • 这个方形是蓝色的
  • Zhège fāngxíng shì lán sè de

• This table is square shaped
  • 这个桌子是方形的
  • Zhège zhuōzi shì fāngxíng de

Utterly Essential Vocabulary for Shopping in Chinese 🛍

52 Essential Words & Phrases for Going Shopping in Chinese Who doesn’t like shopping?! Going Shopping in China is far more fun when you know the essential vocabulary for Shopping in Chinese so let’s learn 52 key words and other…

Rectangle in Chinese

Rectangle in Chinese is 矩形 jǔ xíng.

The literal translate here is “pattern shape”.

Notice how all the shapes include the 形 character on the end.

Although this is the case with many of the shapes it will not apply to all of them, as we’ll find out soon.

That said, it follows a similar to many other groups in Chinese.

Take colours for example. Most colours in Chinese end with the character 色.

Therefore it’s important to get familiar with the 形 character.

Take a look around when you are out and about in China. If you see the 形 character, it might help you understand things faster!

3D Shapes in Chinese

Time to take a step into the 3-dimensional world and learn some of the more commonly used 3D shapes in Chinese.

You’ll see here, we start to discover examples which follow no previous patterns we’ve discussed.

This might be harder to remember because of that so be sure to revise them using our Shapes in Chinese video which you can find below, or on our YouTube channel.

Let’s take a look at these 3D shapes in more detail:

Notice two of the five examples use our friend 形, they are:

• Sphere
  • 球形 qiú xíng
  • Literally “ball shape”
• Triangular Prism
  • 三角棱形 Sānjiǎo léng xíng
  • Literally “Triangle Edge Shape”

Now onto the other three examples:

• Cone
  • 锥体 zhuī tǐ
  • Literally “Cone Form”
• Cylinder
  • 圆锥体 yuán zhuī tǐ
  • Literally “Circle Cone Form”
• Cube
  • 立方体 lì fāng tǐ
  • Literally “Standing Square Form”

Want to Unlock More Shapes?

Ready to learn all the shapes in less than 5 minutes?

Check out our video, we cover even more shapes such as:

• Oval
• Crescent
• Parallelogram

and many more…

Shapes in Quiz

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Shapes in Chinese – FAQ’s

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