HSK 6 · Verbs

闲话 xiánhuà “gossip” in Chinese

Traditional 閒話

What 闲话 means

  1. gossip
  2. idle chat
  3. casual conversation
  4. chat
  5. to talk about (whatever comes to mind)

How to say 闲话

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale闲xián2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale话huà4th tone, falling

闲话 in a sentence

  1. 别在背后说别人的闲话。

    Bié zài bèihòu shuō biéren de xiánhuà.

    Don’t gossip about people behind their backs.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 几个老人坐在门口说闲话。

    Jǐ ge lǎorén zuò zài ménkǒu shuō xiánhuà.

    A few old people sat at the door chatting.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 闲话 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 闲 (xián) with each of its parts in a different colour
闲xiánenclosure
  • 门gate · mén
  • 木tree · mù
The character 话 (huà) with each of its parts in a different colour
话huàdialect
  • 讠speech form of 言 · yán
  • 舌tongue · shé

Memory aidSpeech 讠 from the tongue 舌: talk, words.

How to write 闲话

闲 7 strokes · 话 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 闲话

Words with 闲

空闲kòngxián · free time休闲xiūxián · leisure

Words with 话

电话diànhuà · telephone打电话dǎ diànhuà · to make a phone call说话shuōhuà · to speak的话dehuà · if (ends a conditional clause)对话duìhuà · dialogue笑话xiàohua · joke普通话pǔtōnghuà · Mandarin废话fèihuà · nonsense实话shíhuà · truth神话shénhuà · legend

More words: Thinking & Talking

污蔑wūmiè · to slander侮辱wǔrǔ · to insult想方设法xiǎngfāngshèfǎ · to try every possible way响应xiǎngyìng · to respond to谢绝xièjué · to politely decline泄露xièlòu · to leak协商xiéshāng · to consult喧哗xuānhuá · to make a loud noise

FAQs

闲话 (xiánhuà) means “gossip” or “idle chat”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it xiánhuà: xián with a 2nd tone, then huà 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, 闲话 is written 閒話. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type xianhua with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 闲话 from the suggestions. Typing xianhua into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
闲话 is an HSK 6 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.