HSK 6 · Verbs

鉴别 jiànbié “to distinguish” in Chinese

Traditional 鑑別

What 鉴别 means

  1. to distinguish
  2. to tell apart
  3. to identify
  4. to differentiate

How to say 鉴别

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale鉴jiàn4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale别bié2nd tone, rising

鉴别 in a sentence

  1. 你能鉴别这两种茶吗？

    Nǐ néng jiànbié zhè liǎng zhǒng chá ma?

    Can you tell these two teas apart?

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 专家可以鉴别这幅画的真假。

    Zhuānjiā kěyǐ jiànbié zhè fú huà de zhēnjiǎ.

    Experts can tell whether this painting is genuine.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 鉴别 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 鉴 (jiàn) drawn as one shape
鉴jiànbronze mirror

鉴 is a single shape of 13 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

The character 别 (bié) with each of its parts in a different colour
别biéto leave; to part
  • 另another · lìng
  • 刂knife form of 刀 · dāo

Memory aidA knife 刂 cutting things apart: to separate. As a command, 别 means “don't”.

How to write 鉴别

鉴 13 strokes · 别 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 鉴别

Words with 鉴

鉴定jiàndìng · to appraise借鉴jièjiàn · to learn from鉴于jiànyú · in view of

Words with 别

别bié · don’t别人biéren · other people特别tèbié · special别的biéde · other区别qūbié · difference性别xìngbié · gender分别fēnbié · to part告别gàobié · to say goodbye个别gèbié · individual别墅biéshù · villa

More words: Thinking & Talking

回顾huígù · to look back忽略hūlüè · to overlook混淆hùnxiáo · to confuse呼吁hūyù · to appeal鉴定jiàndìng · to appraise检讨jiǎntǎo · self-criticism交代jiāodài · to explain交涉jiāoshè · to negotiate

FAQs

鉴别 (jiànbié) means “to distinguish” or “to tell apart”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it jiànbié: jiàn with a 4th tone, then bié with a 2nd 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, 鉴别 is written 鑑別. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type jianbie with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 鉴别 from the suggestions. Typing jianbie into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
鉴别 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.