Chinese Character Stroke Order - Basic Rules 1
Chinese characters are built by strokes and components. Some simple characters have strokes only when other characters have two to three components. The following stroke order rules apply to both strokes and components. For instance, the Chinese character (二) has two strokes only. It is written with the top stroke first then the lower stroke. This stroke rule also applies to characters with two components, such as the Chinese character (古). The top component (十) is written before the lower component (口).
1 - Top to bottom (从上到下)
Examples: 二, 古
2 - Left to right (从左到右)
Examples: 好, 你
3 - Horizontal before vertical (先横后竖)
Examples: 十, 土
4 - Diagonals right-to-left before diagonals left-to-right (先撇后捺)
Examples: 人, 八
Learning to Write Chinese Characters
