How to Type the Mandarin Chinese Character for Female: 女 (nǚ)

So, you are learning to read and write Mandarin Chinese characters and having a blast!  

(If you're not, start here with Lesson 1 of our Chinese Characters Course!)

You've learned how Chinese people type characters by entering the pinyin and selecting the correct character from the options that pop up:

You've even learned how to set up the Mandarin Chinese input keyboard on all your devices.

But when you try to type the character 女 (nǚ), meaning "female" -- as in 女人 (nǚ rén)  or 美女 (měi nǚ) -- the right character doesn't pop up!

You type in "nu" and you get 怒 (nù) - "angry", or 奴 (nú) - "slave", but no 女 (nǚ)！

It's driving you CRAZY!  You're wondering, "What am I doing wrong???"

The secret is simple!

To type characters with the ǚ sound, type "v" instead of "u"!

It's that easy!

This is because in Chinese, the pronunciation of "u" and "ü" are different!  

Check out this lesson from Unit 7 of our Beginner Conversational Course to hear Yangyang's complete explanation for how to make all of the letter "u" sounds in Mandarin, including the tricky "ü":

* TIP:  If you're still struggle with the pronunciation of this "ü" sound - or any other Mandarin sound - check out our free interactive pinyin chart.  It has audio and video demonstrations of every sound in Mandarin, with each tone, so you can really focus in on the sounds that are difficult for you:

In Conclusion

•  Type "nv" and you'll get the character 女 (nǚ).

•  Type "lv" and you'll get the character 绿 (lǜ) meaning "green".

And there you go!  Another helpful learning tip from Yoyo Chinese!  If you have any questions, or need an help at all, just let us know in the comments!  Happy typing!