HSK 4 · Verbs

浪费 làngfèi “to waste” in Chinese

Traditional 浪費

What 浪费 means

  1. to waste
  2. to squander

How to say 浪费

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale浪làng4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale费fèi4th tone, falling

浪费 in a sentence

  1. 一粒米都不要浪费！

    Yí lì mǐ dōu búyào làngfèi!

    Waste not a single grain of rice!

    Sentence #829721 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 你不该浪费你的时间。

    Nǐ bùgāi làngfèi nǐ de shíjiān.

    You shouldn’t waste your time.

    Sentence #333674 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我觉得看电视是浪费时间。

    Wǒ juéde kàn diànshì shì làngfèi shíjiān.

    I think watching TV is a waste of time.

    Sentence #389403 from Tatoeba

How 浪费 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 浪 (làng) with each of its parts in a different colour
浪làngwave
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 良good · liángSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 良 (liáng) hints at the sound. Compare it with làng.

The character 费 (fèi) with each of its parts in a different colour
费fèito cost
  • 弗not · fúSound part
  • 贝sea shell · bèiMeaning part

贝 hints at the meaning (sea shell); 弗 (fú) hints at the sound. Compare it with fèi.

How to write 浪费

浪 10 strokes · 费 9 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

浪费 (làngfèi) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 浪费 (làngfèi). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 浪费

Words with 浪

浪漫làngmàn · romantic流浪liúlàng · to wander波浪bōlàng · wave

Words with 费

免费miǎnfèi · free (of charge)消费xiāofèi · to consume耗费hàofèi · to consume经费jīngfèi · funds

More words: Common Verbs

拉lā · to pull来不及láibují · not enough time (to do something)来得及láidejí · to have enough time来自láizì · to come from (a place)理发lǐfà · to get a haircut连lián · even (连…都/也)留liú · to stay免费miǎnfèi · free (of charge)

FAQs

浪费 (làngfèi) means “to waste” or “to squander”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it làngfèi: làng with a 4th tone, then fèi with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 浪费 is written 浪費. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type langfei with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 浪费 from the suggestions. Typing langfei into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
浪费 is an HSK 4 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.