HSK 5 · Adjectives

乖 guāi “(of a child) obedient” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 乖 means

  1. (of a child) obedient, well-behaved
  2. clever
  3. shrewd
  4. alert

How to say 乖

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale乖guāi1st tone, high and level

乖 in a sentence

  1. 你今天乖吗？

    Nǐ jīntiān guāi ma?

    Have you been good today?

    Sentence #11577947 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  2. 你一旦不做个乖孩子，圣诞老人就不会来噢。

    Nǐ yídàn bú zuò ge guāi háizi, Shèngdàn Lǎorén jiù búhuì lái ō.

    If you’re not a good child, Father Christmas won’t come.

    Sentence #5100254 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 乖 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 乖 (guāi) with each of its parts in a different colour
乖guāiobedient, well-behaved
  • 千thousand · qiān
  • 北north · běi

How to write 乖

乖 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 乖

More words: Adjectives

高档gāodàng · superior quality个别gèbié · individual根本gēnběn · (not) at all公平gōngpíng · fair光滑guānghuá · glossy光明guāngmíng · bright广大guǎngdà · (of an area) vast or extensive广泛guǎngfàn · extensive

FAQs

乖 (guāi) means “(of a child) obedient, well-behaved” or “clever”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it guāi: guāi with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 乖 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type guai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 乖 from the suggestions. Typing guai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
乖 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

A dictionary gives you the words. A native teacher shows you how to use them. Start with a free 30-minute intro call.

Book a free intro call

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.