HSK 5 · Verbs

显得 xiǎnde “to seem” in Chinese

Traditional 顯得

What 显得 means

  1. to seem
  2. to look
  3. to appear

How to say 显得

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale显xiǎn3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own得deneutral tone, light and short

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

显得 in a sentence

  1. 他在他弟弟旁边显得很年轻。

    Tā zài tā dìdi pángbiān xiǎnde hěn niánqīng.

    He looked young beside his brother.

    Sentence #792852 from Tatoeba

  2. 他病了,所以脸色显得苍白。

    Tā bìng le, suǒyǐ liǎnsè xiǎnde cāngbái.

    He’s ill, so he looks pale.

    Sentence #1361982 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 一个人能否在不显得傲慢的情况下保持诚实?

    Yí ge rén néngfǒu zài bù xiǎnde àomàn de qíngkuàng xià bǎochí chéngshí?

    Can a person be honest without seeming arrogant?

    Sentence #13882159 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 显得 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 显 (xiǎn) with each of its parts in a different colour
显xiǎnto make visible
  • 日sun · rìMeaning part
  • 业business · yèSound part

日 hints at the meaning (sun); 业 (yè) hints at the sound. Compare it with xiǎn.

The character 得 (de) with each of its parts in a different colour
得destructural particle: used after a verb
  • 彳step · chì
  • 旦dawn · dàn
  • 寸inch · cùn

Memory aidA hand 寸 picking up a shell, once used as money, while out on the road 彳: to get.

How to write 显得

显 9 strokes · 得 11 strokes

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

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

Words related to 显得

Words with 显

Words with 得

More words: Common Verbs

FAQs

显得 (xiǎnde) means “to seem” or “to look”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it xiǎnde: xiǎn with a 3rd tone, then de 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, 显得 is written 顯得. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type xiande with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 显得 from the suggestions. Typing xiande into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
显得 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.