HSK 6 · Adjectives

笨拙 bènzhuō “clumsy” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 笨拙 means

  1. clumsy
  2. awkward
  3. stupid

How to say 笨拙

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale笨bèn4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale拙zhuō1st tone, high and level

笨拙 in a sentence

  1. 汤姆很笨拙。

    Tāngmǔ hěn bènzhuō.

    Tom is clumsy.

    Sentence #6744776 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 笨拙 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 笨 (bèn) with each of its parts in a different colour
笨bènstupid
  • ⺮bamboo form of 竹 · zhúMeaning part
  • 本root · běnSound part

⺮ hints at the meaning (bamboo); 本 (běn) hints at the sound. Compare it with bèn.

The character 拙 (zhuō) with each of its parts in a different colour
拙zhuōawkward
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒuMeaning part
  • 出to go out · chūSound part

扌 hints at the meaning (hand); 出 (chū) hints at the sound. Compare it with zhuō.

How to write 笨拙

笨 11 strokes · 拙 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 笨拙

Words with 笨

笨bèn · stupid

More words: Adjectives

保守bǎoshǒu · conservative卑鄙bēibǐ · despicable悲惨bēicǎn · miserable被动bèidòng · passive扁biǎn · flat便利biànlì · convenient别扭bièniu · awkward别致biézhì · unique

FAQs

笨拙 (bènzhuō) means “clumsy” or “awkward”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it bènzhuō: bèn with a 4th tone, then zhuō with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 笨拙 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type benzhuo with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 笨拙 from the suggestions. Typing benzhuo into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
笨拙 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 from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.