HSK 3 · Body

锻炼 duànliàn “to exercise” in Chinese

Traditional 鍛鍊

What 锻炼 means

  1. to exercise
  2. work out
  3. toughen
  4. to temper
  5. to engage in physical exercise
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • (fig.) to develop one’s skills
  • to train oneself

How to say 锻炼

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale锻duàn4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale炼liàn4th tone, falling

锻炼 in a sentence

  1. 爬山是锻炼的好方法。

    Páshān shì duànliàn de hǎo fāngfǎ.

    Climbing mountains is a good way to exercise.

    Sentence #1517736 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我已经好久没有去锻炼了。

    Wǒ yǐjīng hǎojiǔ méiyǒu qù duànliàn le.

    I haven’t exercised for ages.

    Sentence #420114 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我需要更经常地锻炼。

    Wǒ xūyào gèng jīngcháng de duànliàn.

    I need to exercise more often.

    Sentence #5613714 from Tatoeba

How 锻炼 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 锻 (duàn) with each of its parts in a different colour
锻duànto forge
  • 钅gold form of 金 · jīnMeaning part
  • 段section · duànSound part

钅 hints at the meaning (gold); 段 (duàn) hints at the sound. Compare it with duàn.

The character 炼 (liàn) with each of its parts in a different colour
炼liànto refine
  • 火fire · huǒMeaning part
  • 柬card · jiǎnSound part

火 hints at the meaning (fire); 柬 (jiǎn) hints at the sound. Compare it with liàn.

How to write 锻炼

锻 14 strokes · 炼 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 锻炼

Words with 炼

提炼tíliàn · to refine

More words: People, Body & Health

同事tóngshì · colleague爷爷yéye · father’s father自己zìjǐ · oneself鼻子bízi · nose耳朵ěrduo · ear发烧fāshāo · have a fever感冒gǎnmào · catch cold个子gèzi · height

FAQs

锻炼 (duànliàn) means “to exercise” or “work out”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it duànliàn: duàn with a 4th tone, then liàn 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, 锻炼 is written 鍛鍊. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type duanlian with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 锻炼 from the suggestions. Typing duanlian into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
锻炼 is an HSK 3 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.