How to Write 乖 (guāi) — Meaning “well-behaved; obedient; clever”

Imagine a well-behaved child walking north (北) a thousand (千) times without complaining. The picture of a child going north a thousand times helps you recall that 乖 means obedient. This mnemonic links the character's components to its core meaning.

The stroke order is: first write the top 千 part (丿, 一, 丨, 一), then the bottom 北 part (丿, 乚, 丿, 乚). A common mistake is writing the bottom left stroke as a right-falling instead of left-falling, or misaligning the top 千 so it's off-center. Practice keeping the top and bottom balanced.

乖 means "well-behaved" and has a top like 千 (thousand) and bottom like 北 (north). 乑 is a rare character meaning "many" and looks like three stacked people (人). 乒 is used only in 乒乓 (ping-pong) and has a top like 丘 (hill) or 斤 (axe) with a dot. So they are visually and semantically distinct.

乖 is common in daily speech to praise children or pets for being obedient, like "你很乖" (You are so well-behaved). It also appears in the term 乖乖 (guāi guāi) as a term of endearment for a child or lover. Chinese culture values obedience, so calling someone 乖 is a positive compliment.

Common words containing 乖 include: 乖乖 (guāi guāi) — well-behaved; (to a child) good boy/girl; darling; 乖巧 (guāi qiǎo) — clever; cute and well-behaved; 乖孩子 (guāi hái zi) — well-behaved child.