孙

Tap the pinyin to hear it

grandson; descendant

Make a writing worksheet

HSK 3.0: Level 4
Old HSK: Level 4
Strokes: 6
Radical: 子 +3
Structure: Left–right 左右
Traditional: 孙
Common rank: #1,092
Unicode: U+5B59

Sound it out + =

Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

How 孙 is formed

Ideographic compound (会意字)

Simplified form of 孫; a chain 系 of descent 子

Components 子小

How to remember it

grandchild · Heisig RSH #112

子 child + 小 small

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

Words with 孙

The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
孙子定理	Sūn zi dìng lǐ	the Chinese remainder theorem
亚马孙河	Yà mǎ sūn Hé	Amazon River
外孙女儿	wài sūn nǚ r	granddaughter (one's daughter's daughter)
孙中山	Sūn Zhōng shān	Dr Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), first president of the Republic of China and co-founder of the…
名落孙山	míng luò Sūn Shān	lit. to fall behind Sun Shan 孫山\|孙山[Sun1 Shan1] (who came last in the imperial examination)…
儿孙自有儿孙福	ér sūn zì yǒu ér sūn fú	younger generations will do all right on their own (idiom)
孙子兵法	Sūn zǐ Bīng fǎ	“Art of War”, one of the Seven Military Classics of ancient China 武經七書\|武经七书[Wu3 jing1 Qi1 …
外孙子	wài sūn zi	(coll.) daughter's son; grandson
亚马孙	Yà mǎ sūn	Amazon
重孙子	chóng sūn zi	great-grandson
孙行者	Sūn xíng zhě	Sun Wukong 孫悟空\|孙悟空[Sun1 Wu4 kong1], the Monkey King, character with supernatural powers in…
公孙龙	Gōng sūn Lóng	Gongsun Long (c. 325-250 BC), leading thinker of the School of Logicians of the Warring St…
孙女儿	sūn nǚ r	granddaughter (son's daughter)
公孙起	Gōng sūn Qǐ	Gongsun Qi (-258 BC), famous general of Qin 秦國\|秦国, the victor at 長平\|长平 in 260 BC; same as …
外孙女	wài sūn nǚ	daughter's daughter; granddaughter
孙武子	Sūn Wǔ zǐ	Sun Wu, famous general, strategist and Legalist philosopher, contemporary with Confucius 孔…
重孙女	chóng sūn nǚ	great-granddaughter
孙大圣	Sūn dà shèng	Great-Sage Sun; Sun Wukong 孫悟空\|孙悟空[Sun1 Wu4 kong1]
炎黄子孙	Yán Huáng zǐ sūn	descendants of the Fiery Emperor and the Yellow Emperor (i.e. Han Chinese people)
乌孙国	Wū sūn guó	Wusun kingdom of central Asia (c. 300 BC-300 AD)

Sound family

These characters use 孙 as their sound component — compare how they read.

Character	Pinyin	Meaning
孙 sound part	sūn	grandchild, descendent; surname
逊	xùn	humble, modest; to yield
狲	sūn	monkey
荪	sūn	aromatic grass; flower, iris