HSK 1 · Particles

很 hěn “very” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 很 means

  1. very
  2. quite
  3. (also, often used before an adjective without intensifying its meaning, i.e. as a meaningless syntactic element)

How to say 很

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale很hěn3rd tone, dipping

很 in a sentence

  1. 我很想知道她的名字。

    Wǒ hěn xiǎng zhīdao tā de míngzi.

    I really want to know her name.

    Sentence #2254361 from Tatoeba

  2. 如果你会唱歌，那很好。

    Rúguǒ nǐ huì chànggē, nà hěn hǎo.

    If you can sing, that is great.

    Sentence #1083545 from Tatoeba

  3. 从这儿到那儿是很近的。

    Cóng zhèr dào nàr shì hěn jìn de.

    It’s very close from here to there.

    Sentence #391188 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 很 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 很 (hěn) with each of its parts in a different colour
很hěnvery; quite
  • 彳step · chìMeaning part
  • 艮stopping · gěnSound part

彳 hints at the meaning (step); 艮 (gěn) hints at the sound. Compare it with hěn.

How to write 很

很 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 很

More words: Particles & Connectors

吗ma · question particle呢ne · question particle不bù · no都dōu · all太tài · too和hé · and吧ba · suggestion particle比bǐ · compared to

FAQs

很 (hěn) means “very” or “quite”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it hěn: hěn with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 很 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type hen with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 很 from the suggestions. Typing hen into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
很 is an HSK 1 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.