HSK 5 · Function Words

悄悄 qiāoqiāo “quietly” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 悄悄 means

  1. quietly
  2. secretly
  3. on the quiet
  4. quiet
  5. making little or no noise
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • surreptitious
  • stealthy

How to say 悄悄

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale悄qiāo1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale悄qiāo1st tone, high and level

悄悄 in a sentence

  1. 我悄悄把信给了他。

    Wǒ qiāoqiāo bǎ xìn gěi le tā.

    I quietly passed him the letter.

    Sentence #1446860 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他悄悄地递给我一张纸条。

    Tā qiāoqiāo de dìgěi wǒ yì zhāng zhǐtiáo.

    He quietly slipped me a note.

    Sentence #2440659 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 她跟你说了什么悄悄话？

    Tā gēn nǐ shuō le shénme qiāoqiāohuà?

    What did she whisper to you?

    Sentence #868485 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 悄悄 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 悄 (qiāo) with each of its parts in a different colour
悄qiāoquiet
  • 忄heart form of 心 · xīnMeaning part
  • 肖to resemble · xiàoSound part

忄 hints at the meaning (heart); 肖 (xiào) hints at the sound. Compare it with qiāo.

The character 悄 (qiāo) with each of its parts in a different colour
悄qiāoquiet
  • 忄heart form of 心 · xīnMeaning part
  • 肖to resemble · xiàoSound part

忄 hints at the meaning (heart); 肖 (xiào) hints at the sound. Compare it with qiāo.

How to write 悄悄

悄 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 悄悄

More words: Function Words & Grammar

平方píngfāng · square (as in square foot凭píng · to rely on轻易qīngyì · easily其余qíyú · the rest亲自qīnzì · personally群qún · group日常rìcháng · day-to-day如何rúhé · how

FAQs

悄悄 (qiāoqiāo) means “quietly” or “secretly”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it qiāoqiāo: qiāo with a 1st tone, then qiāo with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 悄悄 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type qiaoqiao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 悄悄 from the suggestions. Typing qiaoqiao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
悄悄 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.