HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Connectives

的话 dehuà “if (ends a conditional clause)” in Chinese

Traditional 的話

What 的话 means

  1. if (ends a conditional clause)
  2. if (coming after a conditional clause)

How to say 的话

  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own的deneutral tone, light and short
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale话huà4th tone, falling

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

的话 in a sentence

  1. 如果明天下雨的话，我们就不去。

    Rúguǒ míngtiān xiàyǔ dehuà, wǒmen jiù bú qù.

    If it rains tomorrow, we won’t go.

    Sentence #3697923 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我们一起做的话会更有趣的。

    Wǒmen yìqǐ zuò dehuà huì gèng yǒuqù de.

    It’ll be more fun if we do it together.

    Sentence #13994830 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 可以的话你也一起来吧。

    Kěyǐ dehuà nǐ yě yìqǐ lái ba.

    Come along too, if you can.

    Sentence #344984 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 的话 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 的 (de) with each of its parts in a different colour
的deof; ~’s
  • 白white · bái
  • 勺spoon · sháo

Memory aidIt first meant “bright, clear”, with white 白 for the meaning and 勺 (sháo) for the sound. Now it is the most common character in Chinese.

The character 话 (huà) with each of its parts in a different colour
话huàdialect
  • 讠speech form of 言 · yán
  • 舌tongue · shé

Memory aidSpeech 讠 from the tongue 舌: talk, words.

How to write 的话

的 8 strokes · 话 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 的话

Words with 的

的de · possessive particle有的yǒude · (there are) some (who are…)别的biéde · other目的mùdì · purpose的确díquè · really似的shìde · as if

Words with 话

电话diànhuà · telephone打电话dǎ diànhuà · to make a phone call说话shuōhuà · to speak对话duìhuà · dialogue笑话xiàohua · joke普通话pǔtōnghuà · Mandarin废话fèihuà · nonsense实话shíhuà · truth神话shénhuà · legend话题huàtí · subject (of a talk or conversation)

More words: Connectives & Grammar Words

有关yǒuguān · to be related to子zi · (common noun suffix)以下yǐxià · below以上yǐshàng · above将jiāng · will并bìng · and之间zhījiān · between者zhě · (suffix) person who …

FAQs

的话 (dehuà) means “if (ends a conditional clause)” or “if (coming after a conditional clause)”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it dehuà: de with a neutral tone, then huà with a 4th 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, 的话 is written 的話. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type dehua with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 的话 from the suggestions. Typing dehua into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
的话 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 4 word list. It is not on the older 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.