HSK 5 · Adjectives

糊涂 hútu “muddled” in Chinese

Traditional 糊塗

What 糊涂 means

  1. muddled
  2. silly
  3. confused

How to say 糊涂

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale糊hú2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own涂tuneutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

糊涂 in a sentence

  1. 他把我们弄糊涂了。

    Tā bǎ wǒmen nòng hútu le.

    He confused us.

    Sentence #2112340 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  2. 小事聪明，大事糊涂。

    Xiǎoshì cōngming, dàshì hútu.

    Smart about small things, muddled about big ones.

    Sentence #340166 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 糊涂 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 糊 (hú) with each of its parts in a different colour
糊húto paste; to glue
  • 米rice · mǐMeaning part
  • 胡recklessly · húSound part

米 hints at the meaning (rice); 胡 (hú) hints at the sound. Compare it with hú.

The character 涂 (tú) with each of its parts in a different colour
涂túto applylight in 糊涂
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 余surplus · yúSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 余 (yú) hints at the sound. Compare it with tu.

How to write 糊涂

糊 15 strokes · 涂 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 糊涂

Words with 糊

模糊móhu · vague含糊hánhu · vague

Words with 涂

涂抹túmǒ · to smear

More words: Adjectives

过分guòfèn · excessive豪华háohuá · luxurious合法héfǎ · lawful合理hélǐ · rational慌张huāngzhāng · flustered灰huī · grey活跃huóyuè · active激烈jīliè · (of competition or fighting) intense

FAQs

糊涂 (hútu) means “muddled” or “silly”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it hútu: hú with a 2nd tone, then tu with a neutral 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, 糊涂 is written 糊塗. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type hutu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 糊涂 from the suggestions. Typing hutu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
糊涂 is an HSK 5 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.