HSK 4 · Adjectives

活泼 huópo “lively” in Chinese

Traditional 活潑

What 活泼 means

  1. lively
  2. vivacious
  3. brisk
  4. active
  5. (chemistry) reactive

How to say 活泼

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale活huó2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own泼poneutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

活泼 in a sentence

  1. 她的女儿很活泼，也很可爱。

    Tā de nǚ'ér hěn huópo, yě hěn kě'ài.

    Her daughter is lively and very cute.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 这个班的学生都很活泼。

    Zhè ge bān de xuésheng dōu hěn huópo.

    The students in this class are all very lively.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 活泼 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 活 (huó) with each of its parts in a different colour
活huóto live
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 舌tongue · shéSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 舌 (shé) hints at the sound. Compare it with huó.

The character 泼 (pō) with each of its parts in a different colour
泼pōto splashlight in 活泼
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐ
  • 发to issue · fā

How to write 活泼

活 9 strokes · 泼 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 活泼

Words with 活

活huó · to live活动huódòng · activity生活shēnghuó · to live活跃huóyuè · active灵活línghuó · flexible干活儿gànhuór · to work活该huógāi · serves (someone) right快活kuàihuo · happy复活fùhuó · to come back to life活力huólì · vitality

Words with 泼

泼pō · to splash

More words: Adjectives

国际guójì · international合格hégé · to meet the standard required合适héshì · suitable厚hòu · thick积极jījí · active假jiǎ · false精彩jīngcǎi · wonderful科学kēxué · science

FAQs

活泼 (huópo) means “lively” or “vivacious”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it huópo: huó with a 2nd tone, then po with a neutral 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, 活泼 is written 活潑. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type huopo with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 活泼 from the suggestions. Typing huopo into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
活泼 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.