HSK 6 · Adjectives

悲惨 bēicǎn “miserable” in Chinese

Traditional 悲慘

What 悲惨 means

  1. miserable
  2. tragic

How to say 悲惨

  • 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 third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale惨cǎn3rd tone, dipping

悲惨 in a sentence

  1. 这个故事有一个悲惨的结局。

    Zhè ge gùshi yǒu yí ge bēicǎn de jiéjú.

    This story has a tragic ending.

    Sentence #6559087 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 悲惨 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 惨 (cǎn) with each of its parts in a different colour
惨cǎnmiserable
  • 忄heart form of 心 · xīnMeaning part
  • 参to take part in · cānSound part

忄 hints at the meaning (heart); 参 (cān) hints at the sound. Compare it with cǎn.

How to write 悲惨

悲 12 strokes · 惨 11 strokes

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

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

Words related to 悲惨

Words with 悲

悲观bēiguān · pessimistic悲哀bēi'āi · sorrowful

More words: Adjectives

凹凸āotū · uneven霸道bàdào · overbearing保守bǎoshǒu · conservative卑鄙bēibǐ · despicable被动bèidòng · passive笨拙bènzhuō · clumsy扁biǎn · flat便利biànlì · convenient

FAQs

悲惨 (bēicǎn) means “miserable” or “tragic”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it bēicǎn: bēi with a 1st tone, then cǎn with a 3rd 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, 悲惨 is written 悲慘. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type beican with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 悲惨 from the suggestions. Typing beican into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
悲惨 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.