HSK 5 · Family

宝贝 bǎobèi “baby” in Chinese

Traditional 寶貝

What 宝贝 means

  1. baby
  2. darling
  3. treasure
  4. treasured object
  5. cowry

How to say 宝贝

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale宝bǎo3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale贝bèi4th tone, falling

宝贝 in a sentence

  1. 出什么事了，宝贝？

    Chū shénme shì le, bǎobèi?

    What’s wrong, darling?

    Sentence #4147300 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他是家里的宝贝。

    Tā shì jiālǐ de bǎobèi.

    He’s the darling of the family.

    Sentence #429133 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 这个球是那个男孩的宝贝。

    Zhè ge qiú shì nà ge nánhái de bǎobèi.

    This ball is that boy’s treasure.

    Sentence #392260 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 宝贝 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 宝 (bǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
宝bǎojewel
  • 宀roof · mián
  • 玉jade · yù
The character 贝 (bèi) with each of its parts in a different colour
贝bèicowrie
  • 冂down box · jiōng
  • 人person · rén

How to write 宝贝

宝 8 strokes · 贝 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 宝贝

Words with 宝

宝贵bǎoguì · valuable

Words with 贝

贝壳bèiké · shell

More words: People, Body & Health

毛máo · hair皮肤pífū · skin生命shēngmìng · life痛tòng · painful成人chéngrén · adult宠物chǒngwù · house pet胆小鬼dǎnxiǎoguǐ · coward对方duìfāng · the other person

FAQs

宝贝 (bǎobèi) means “baby” or “darling”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it bǎobèi: bǎo with a 3rd tone, then bèi 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, 宝贝 is written 寶貝. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type baobei with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 宝贝 from the suggestions. Typing baobei into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
宝贝 is an HSK 5 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.