HSK 4 · Adjectives

笨 bèn “stupid” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 笨 means

  1. stupid
  2. foolish
  3. silly
  4. slow-witted
  5. clumsy

How to say 笨

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

笨 in a sentence

  1. 你真的不笨。

    Nǐ zhēn de bú bèn.

    You’re really not stupid.

    Sentence #5259025 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他比你笨。

    Tā bǐ nǐ bèn.

    He’s more stupid than you.

    Sentence #759543 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 笨 can also mean “clumsy”, as in 笨手笨脚

    他笨手笨脚的。

    Tā bèn shǒu bèn jiǎo de.

    He’s so clumsy.

    Sentence #8936248 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 笨 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.

How to write 笨

笨 11 strokes

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

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

Words related to 笨

Words with 笨

笨拙bènzhuō · clumsy

More words: Adjectives

难看nánkàn · ugly难听nántīng · unpleasant to hear安全ānquán · safe棒bàng · great标准biāozhǔn · standard诚实chéngshí · honest粗心cūxīn · careless低dī · low

FAQs

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