HSK 1 · Adjectives

漂亮 piàoliang “beautiful” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 漂亮 means

  1. beautiful
  2. pretty

How to say 漂亮

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale漂piào4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own亮liangneutral tone, light and short

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

漂亮 in a sentence

  1. 这件衣服真漂亮。

    Zhè jiàn yīfu zhēn piàoliang.

    This piece of clothing is really pretty.

    Sentence #3537655 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 你的字写得真漂亮！

    Nǐ de zì xiě de zhēn piàoliang!

    Your handwriting is really beautiful!

    Sentence #11837726 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 好漂亮的婚纱！

    Hǎo piàoliang de hūnshā!

    What a beautiful wedding dress!

    Sentence #12303578 from Tatoeba

How 漂亮 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 漂 (piào) with each of its parts in a different colour
漂piàoto float
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 票bank note · piàoSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 票 (piào) hints at the sound. Compare it with piào.

The character 亮 (liàng) with each of its parts in a different colour
亮liàngbright; lightlight in 漂亮
  • 亠lid · tóu
  • 口mouth · kǒu
  • 冖cover · mì
  • 几table · jī

How to write 漂亮

漂 14 strokes · 亮 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 漂亮

Words with 漂

漂浮piāofú · to float

Words with 亮

月亮yuèliang · the moon亮liàng · bright响亮xiǎngliàng · loud and clear

More words: Adjectives

少shǎo · few冷lěng · cold热rè · hot高兴gāoxìng · happy好看hǎokàn · good-looking好听hǎotīng · pleasant to hear好玩儿hǎowánr · amusing快乐kuàilè · happy

FAQs

漂亮 (piàoliang) means “beautiful” or “pretty”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it piàoliang: piào with a 4th tone, then liang with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 漂亮 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type piaoliang with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 漂亮 from the suggestions. Typing piaoliang into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
漂亮 is an HSK 1 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.