HSK 3.0 Level 1 · Adjectives

好看 hǎokàn “good-looking” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 好看 means

  1. good-looking
  2. nice-looking
  3. (of a movie, book, TV show etc) good
  4. in an embarrassing situation

How to say 好看

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale好hǎo3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale看kàn4th tone, falling

好看 in a sentence

  1. 电影不如原著好看。

    Diànyǐng bùrú yuánzhù hǎokàn.

    The film isn’t as good as the book.

    Sentence #1964246 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 是挺好看的，但我不喜欢红色。

    Shì tǐng hǎokàn de, dàn wǒ bù xǐhuan hóngsè.

    It is pretty, but I don’t like red.

    Sentence #11811426 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  3. 把这些花插在花瓶里会更好看。

    Bǎ zhèxiē huā chā zài huāpíng lǐ huì gèng hǎokàn.

    These flowers would look nicer in a vase.

    Sentence #1873159 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 好看 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 好 (hǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
好hǎogood
  • 女woman · nǚ
  • 子child · zǐ

Memory aidA woman 女 with her child 子: something good.

The character 看 (kàn) with each of its parts in a different colour
看kànto see; to look at
  • 手hand · shǒu
  • 目eye · mù

Memory aidA hand 手 shading the eyes 目: to look.

How to write 好看

好 6 strokes · 看 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 好看

Words with 好

好hǎo · good你好nǐ hǎo · hello好听hǎotīng · pleasant to hear好玩儿hǎowánr · amusing好吃hǎochī · delicious不好意思bùhǎoyìsi · to feel embarrassed爱好àihào · hobby好多hǎoduō · a lot of好久hǎojiǔ · a long time好像hǎoxiàng · as if

Words with 看

看kàn · to look看见kànjiàn · to see看病kànbìng · to visit a doctor看来kànlái · it seems难看nánkàn · ugly看法kànfǎ · way of looking at a thing看望kànwàng · to visit看不起kànbuqǐ · to look down upon看待kàndài · to regard

More words: Adjectives

冷lěng · cold热rè · hot高兴gāoxìng · happy漂亮piàoliang · beautiful好听hǎotīng · pleasant to hear好玩儿hǎowánr · amusing快乐kuàilè · happy慢màn · slow

FAQs

好看 (hǎokàn) means “good-looking” or “nice-looking”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word.
Say it hǎokàn: hǎo with a 3rd tone, then kàn with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 好看 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type haokan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 好看 from the suggestions. Typing haokan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
好看 is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 1 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.