HSK 5 · Verbs

抱怨 bàoyuàn “to complain” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 抱怨 means

  1. to complain
  2. to grumble
  3. to harbour a complaint
  4. to feel dissatisfied

How to say 抱怨

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale抱bào4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale怨yuàn4th tone, falling

抱怨 in a sentence

  1. 农民总是抱怨天气。

    Nóngmín zǒngshì bàoyuàn tiānqì.

    Farmers always complain about the weather.

    Sentence #7774819 from Tatoeba

  2. 他抱怨菜的味道不好。

    Tā bàoyuàn cài de wèidao bù hǎo.

    He complained that the food didn’t taste good.

    Sentence #919888 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我听够你的抱怨了。

    Wǒ tīng gòu nǐ de bàoyuàn le.

    I’ve had enough of your complaints.

    Sentence #11231374 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 抱怨 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 抱 (bào) with each of its parts in a different colour
抱bàoto hold
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒu
  • 包wrap · bāo
The character 怨 (yuàn) with each of its parts in a different colour
怨yuànto blame
  • 夗to turn over when asleep · yuànSound part
  • 心heart · xīnMeaning part

心 hints at the meaning (heart); 夗 (yuàn) hints at the sound. Compare it with yuàn.

How to write 抱怨

抱 8 strokes · 怨 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 抱怨

Words with 抱

抱bào · to hold抱歉bàoqiàn · to be sorry拥抱yōngbào · to embrace抱负bàofù · aspiration

Words with 怨

埋怨mányuàn · to complain恩怨ēnyuàn · old grudges

More words: Thinking & Talking

总结zǒngjié · to sum up尊重zūnzhòng · to esteem报道bàodào · to report (news)保留bǎoliú · to keep辩论biànlùn · debate表达biǎodá · to express参考cānkǎo · to consult吵架chǎojià · to quarrel

FAQs

抱怨 (bàoyuàn) means “to complain” or “to grumble”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it bàoyuàn: bào with a 4th tone, then yuàn with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 抱怨 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type baoyuan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 抱怨 from the suggestions. Typing baoyuan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
抱怨 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.