HSK 6 · Emotions

悲哀 bēi'āi “sorrowful” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 悲哀 means

  1. sorrowful
  2. grieved
  3. sad

How to say 悲哀

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale悲bēi1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale哀āi1st tone, high and level

悲哀 in a sentence

  1. 她的眼神里充满了悲哀。

    Tā de yǎnshén lǐ chōngmǎn le bēi'āi.

    Her eyes were full of sadness.

    Sentence #867898 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 悲哀 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 悲 (bēi) with each of its parts in a different colour
悲bēisad
  • 非wrong · fēiSound part
  • 心heart · xīnMeaning part

心 hints at the meaning (heart); 非 (fēi) hints at the sound. Compare it with bēi.

The character 哀 (āi) with each of its parts in a different colour
哀āisorrow; grief; pity
  • 衣clothes · yīSound part
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part

口 hints at the meaning (mouth); 衣 (yī) hints at the sound. Compare it with āi.

How to write 悲哀

悲 12 strokes · 哀 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 悲哀

Words with 悲

悲观bēiguān · pessimistic悲惨bēicǎn · miserable

More words: Emotions & Attitudes

爱不释手àibúshìshǒu · to love something too much to put it down爱戴àidài · to love and respect巴不得bābudé · to be eager to抱负bàofù · aspiration鄙视bǐshì · to despise不屑一顾búxièyígù · to disdain诧异chàyì · astonished称心如意chènxīnrúyì · to be completely satisfied

FAQs

悲哀 (bēi’āi) means “sorrowful” or “grieved”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it bēi’āi: bēi with a 1st tone, then āi with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 悲哀 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type beiai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 悲哀 from the suggestions. Typing beiai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
悲哀 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.