Embodiments of this application provide a method for transmitting a reference signal, including: sending, by a network device to UE, information about a waveform, an antenna port, and a resource block, where the waveform includes an OFDM waveform or a DFT-s-OFDM waveform, the antenna port indicates a resource mapping pattern used by the UE to send or receive a reference signal, and in a symbol of the resource mapping pattern, a reference signal corresponding to the DFT-s-OFDM waveform is mapped in frequency domain in a comb-shaped manner, and a reference signal corresponding to the OFDM waveform is mapped to a frequency domain resource to which the DFT-s-OFDM waveform is not mapped; and sending, by the network device, the reference signal or receiving the reference signal on the resource block based on the information about the waveform, the information about the antenna port, and the information about the resource block.