HSK 6 · Verbs

敷衍 fūyǎn “to do something perfunctorily” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 敷衍 means

  1. to do something perfunctorily
  2. to go through the motions
  3. to fob off
  4. to elaborate (on a theme)
  5. to expound (the classics)
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • perfunctory
  • to skimp
  • to botch
  • to do sth half-heartedly or just for show

How to say 敷衍

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale敷fū1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale衍yǎn3rd tone, dipping

敷衍 in a sentence

  1. 他做作业总是敷衍了事。

    Tā zuò zuòyè zǒngshì fūyǎn liǎoshì.

    He always rushes through his homework without any care.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 别用这种话敷衍我。

    Bié yòng zhè zhǒng huà fūyǎn wǒ.

    Don’t try to fob me off with that.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 敷衍 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 敷 (fū) with each of its parts in a different colour
敷fūto spread
  • 旉to announceSound part
  • 攵tap form of 攴 · pūMeaning part

攵 hints at the meaning (tap); 旉 () hints at the sound. Compare it with fū.

The character 衍 (yǎn) with each of its parts in a different colour
衍yǎnto spread out
  • 行walk · xíng
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐ

How to write 敷衍

敷 15 strokes · 衍 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 敷衍

More words: Common Verbs

服从fúcóng · to obey覆盖fùgài · to cover抚摸fǔmō · to stroke俯视fǔshì · to look down on (from above)赋予fùyǔ · to give辅助fǔzhù · to assist改良gǎiliáng · to improve干扰gānrǎo · to disturb

FAQs

敷衍 (fūyǎn) means “to do something perfunctorily” or “to go through the motions”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it fūyǎn: fū with a 1st tone, then yǎn with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 敷衍 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type fuyan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 敷衍 from the suggestions. Typing fuyan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
敷衍 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.