HSK 6 · Verbs

辜负 gūfù “to let down” in Chinese

Traditional 辜負

What 辜负 means

  1. to let down
  2. to fail to live up to
  3. to fail to live up to (sb’s expectations, trust or kindness)

How to say 辜负

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale辜gū1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale负fù4th tone, falling

辜负 in a sentence

  1. 她没有辜负我们的期望。

    Tā méiyǒu gūfù wǒmen de qīwàng.

    She didn’t let us down; she lived up to our expectations.

    Sentence #332813 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 对不起，是我辜负你了。

    Duìbuqǐ, shì wǒ gūfù nǐ le.

    I’m sorry I let you down.

    Sentence #2919635 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 你这样做，辜负了朋友对你的信任。

    Nǐ zhèyàng zuò, gūfù le péngyou duì nǐ de xìnrèn.

    By doing this, you’ve let down your friends who trusted you.

    Sentence #2919612 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 辜负 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 辜 (gū) with each of its parts in a different colour
辜gūcrime; sin
  • 古old · gǔSound part
  • 辛bitter · xīnMeaning part

辛 hints at the meaning (bitter); 古 (gǔ) hints at the sound. Compare it with gū.

The character 负 (fù) with each of its parts in a different colour
负fùto bear
  • ⺈knife form of 刀 · dāo
  • 贝sea shell · bèi

How to write 辜负

辜 12 strokes · 负 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 辜负

Words with 辜

无辜wúgū · innocent

Words with 负

负责fùzé · to be in charge of胜负shèngfù · victory or defeat欺负qīfu · to bully抱负bàofù · aspiration正负zhèngfù · positive and negative负担fùdān · burden

More words: Thinking & Talking

歌颂gēsòng · to sing the praises of公认gōngrèn · generally recognised构思gòusī · to conceive (an idea or plot)鼓动gǔdòng · to stir up过奖guòjiǎng · you flatter me过问guòwèn · to concern oneself with寒暄hánxuān · to exchange pleasantries哼hēng · to hum

FAQs

辜负 (gūfù) means “to let down” or “to fail to live up to”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it gūfù: gū with a 1st tone, then fù 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, 辜负 is written 辜負. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type gufu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 辜负 from the suggestions. Typing gufu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
辜负 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 from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.