Writing • Stroke Rules
Stroke Order Rules — Part 3
Advanced Characters & Common Mistakes
Even after mastering the six core rules, certain characters catch learners off guard. This page covers the characters students most often write incorrectly, the special penetrating-vertical rule, and a complete summary of all the rules in one place.
Characters Students Commonly Get Wrong
These five characters have stroke orders that feel counterintuitive. They are worth memorising individually rather than trying to derive them from the rules alone.
必 — bì (must, surely)
Students often write the dot first. Correct order: left-falling diagonal, the horizontal-turning stroke across, then the three dots added last (bottom-left, top-right, bottom-right).
女 — nǚ (woman, female)
Students often start with the vertical. Correct: the left-falling-then-rising stroke comes first (the angled stroke through the middle), then the crossing horizontal last.
及 — jí (reach, and)
The left-falling stroke (撇) goes first, then the curved stroke, then the short dot/stroke at the bottom-left — not the other way around.
凸 — tū (convex, protruding)
One of the most counterintuitive characters. The bottom-left vertical goes first, then the top protrusion is drawn, then the right side completes — follows outside-before-inside logic with an unusual shape.
凹 — āo (concave, hollow)
Similar to 凸 — the outside left stroke goes first. The inner recession is handled by drawing the frame carefully, left to right, following the unusual contour.
Characters with a Penetrating Central Vertical
When a vertical stroke passes completely through the entire character from top to bottom, it is written last. This is different from a simple crossing stroke (Rule 3) — here the vertical dominates the entire structure.
Mnemonic: “Build the house, then put the flagpole through it.”
中 — zhōng
middle, China
The 口 box shape is written first (3 strokes). The vertical stroke that penetrates through the top of 口 is written last.
申 — shēn
to state, 9th Earthly Branch
Similar structure to 中 — the enclosing horizontal strokes and frame come first, then the central vertical penetrating through from top to bottom.
車 — chē
vehicle, car (traditional)
The upper horizontal strokes and the inner horizontal come first. The long central vertical that passes through the entire character is written last.
Practice Exercises — 20 Characters
For each character below, try to predict the stroke order before looking it up. Which rules apply? Is there a penetrating vertical? A dot-last exception? Then verify with the animated tool.
How to Look Up Stroke Order Online
Enter any character to see animated stroke order with pause/replay controls.
Hover over any character to see a mini stroke-order animation.
Shows stroke order diagrams with numbered strokes for each character.
Our animated stroke order examples use Hanzi Writer — free, open-source.
Summary: All 6 Stroke Order Rules
A quick-reference table you can screenshot and save.