HSK 5 · Verbs

看不起 kànbuqǐ “to look down upon” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 看不起 means

  1. to look down upon
  2. to despise

How to say 看不起

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale看kàn4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own不buneutral tone, light and short
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale起qǐ3rd tone, dipping

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

看不起 in a sentence

  1. 不要因为他穷就看不起他。

    Búyào yīnwèi tā qióng jiù kànbuqǐ tā.

    Don’t look down on him just because he’s poor.

    Sentence #1329545 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  2. 不要看不起别人。

    Búyào kànbuqǐ biéren.

    Don’t look down on others.

    Sentence #833106 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  3. 富人有时会看不起穷人。

    Fùrén yǒushí huì kànbuqǐ qióngrén.

    Rich people sometimes look down on the poor.

    Sentence #1998069 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 看不起 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 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.

The character 不 (bù) drawn as one shape
不bùno; not solight in 看不起

不 is a single shape of 4 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidPicture a bar 一 across the top that nothing below can get past: not, no.

The character 起 (qǐ) with each of its parts in a different colour
起qǐto rise
  • 走walk · zǒuMeaning part
  • 己self · jǐSound part

走 hints at the meaning (walk); 己 (jǐ) hints at the sound. Compare it with qǐ.

How to write 看不起

看 9 strokes · 不 4 strokes · 起 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 看不起

Words with 看

看kàn · to look看见kànjiàn · to see看病kànbìng · to visit a doctor好看hǎokàn · good-looking看来kànlái · it seems难看nánkàn · ugly看法kànfǎ · way of looking at a thing看望kànwàng · to visit看待kàndài · to regard

Words with 不

不bù · no不要bùyào · don’t!不客气bú kèqi · you’re welcome对不起duìbuqǐ · sorry不错bùcuò · not bad不好意思bùhǎoyìsi · to feel embarrassed不但búdàn · not only不同bùtóng · different不少bùshǎo · quite a few不见bújiàn · to be missing

Words with 起

对不起duìbuqǐ · sorry一起yìqǐ · together起床qǐchuáng · to get up起qǐ · to rise起飞qǐfēi · take off in an aeroplane起来qǐlai · beginning or continuing an action引起yǐnqǐ · to give rise to了不起liǎobuqǐ · amazing起初qǐchū · at first起草qǐcǎo · to draft

More words: Thinking & Talking

接待jiēdài · to receive (visitors or guests)借口jièkǒu · to use as an excuse据说jùshuō · it is said that决心juéxīn · determination夸kuā · to praise骂mà · to scold满足mǎnzú · to satisfy秘密mìmì · secret

FAQs

看不起 (kànbuqǐ) means “to look down upon” or “to despise”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it kànbuqǐ: kàn with a 4th tone, then bu with a neutral tone, then qǐ with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 看不起 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type kanbuqi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 看不起 from the suggestions. Typing kanbuqi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
看不起 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.