v.
To move through water by swimming or floating. To travel, roam, tour, wander, or hang out; to go with the flow. Water (氵) carries a child (子) along a direction (方) — gliding and exploring.
游
Common Usage & Traps
- 游泳 — to swim (the standard everyday word)
- 游两三次 — to swim two or three times
- 去游泳 — to go swimming
- 游半小时 — to swim for half an hour
-
游水游泳游水 is not standard Mandarin for swimming. It sounds dialectal or literal. Use 游泳 for the HSK 2 word.
-
去游去游泳 / 去游一会儿游 alone sounds unfinished as a bare action. Add 游泳 or a following phrase like 一会儿.
When can you just say 游 instead of 游泳?
Use 游 alone before a frequency phrase; otherwise 游泳 is the safe default.
游泳 is the everyday word for swimming. 游 can stand alone when a frequency or duration phrase follows and the context is already clear. So 游两三次 and 游泳两三次 both work. In a bare sentence, use 去游泳, not 去游. “最近我每周都游两三次，但看电影是我最大的爱好！” (Lately I swim two or three times a week, but watching movies is my biggest hobby!) ── [《你喜欢看老电影吗？》](/read/do-you-like-old-movies#s11)
| Dimension | Natural | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Bare sentence | 我游泳 | 我游 |
| Go swimming | 去游泳 | 去游 |
| With frequency | 游两三次 / 游泳两三次 | 游水两三次 |
Is 游水 a normal way to say 'swim' in Mandarin?
Say 游泳, not 游水, for standard Mandarin swimming.
游水 looks logical because 游 means swim and 水 means water. But standard Mandarin uses 游泳 for swimming. You may hear 游水 in Cantonese, but in Beijing or Shanghai it sounds dialectal. Stick with 游泳 in HSK exams and daily Mandarin.
| Dimension | Natural | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Mandarin standard | 游泳 | 游水 |
| Go swimming | 去游泳 | 去游水 |
Featured in Story Deep Dive
Follow how this word unfolds across the narrative arc of this graded story.
In this dialogue, two people chat while waiting outside a cinema. You'll hear common phrases for talking about hobbies, sports, and movie preferences.
- Scene #1
最近我每周都 游 两三次，但看电影是我最大的爱好！
Questions & Discussion 0 questions
No questions or discussions yet. Have a question about this character/word? Be the first to ask!