HSK 6 · Verbs

哼 hēng “to hum” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 哼 means

  1. to hum
  2. to snort
  3. to groan
  4. to croon
  5. humph!

How to say 哼

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale哼hēng1st tone, high and level

哼 in a sentence

  1. 她哼着四拍子的歌。

    Tā hēng zhe sì pāizi de gē.

    She was humming a song in four-four time.

    Sentence #13964123 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 哼，我就知道事情会变成这样。

    Hēng, wǒ jiù zhīdao shìqing huì biànchéng zhèyàng.

    Hmph, I knew things would turn out like this.

    Sentence #13799584 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 哼 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 哼 (hēng) with each of its parts in a different colour
哼hēngto groan
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part
  • 亨prospering · hēngSound part

口 hints at the meaning (mouth); 亨 (hēng) hints at the sound. Compare it with hēng.

How to write 哼

哼 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 哼

More words: Thinking & Talking

辜负gūfù · to let down过奖guòjiǎng · you flatter me过问guòwèn · to concern oneself with寒暄hánxuān · to exchange pleasantries哄hǒng · to coax吼hǒu · to roar恍然大悟huǎngrándàwù · to suddenly realise呼唤hūhuàn · to call

FAQs

哼 (hēng) means “to hum” or “to snort”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it hēng: hēng with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 哼 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type heng with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 哼 from the suggestions. Typing heng into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
哼 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.