HSK 5 · Family

姥姥 lǎolao “grandma (mother’s mother)” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 姥姥 means

  1. grandma (mother’s mother)
  2. (coll.) mother’s mother
  3. maternal grandmother

How to say 姥姥

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale姥lǎo3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own姥laoneutral tone, light and short

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

姥姥 in a sentence

  1. 我姥姥只喝了点儿汤。

    Wǒ lǎolao zhǐ hē le diǎnr tāng.

    My grandma only had a little soup.

    Sentence #1216064 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 姥姥 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 姥 (lǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
姥lǎograndma
  • 女woman · nǚ
  • 老old · lǎo
The character 姥 (lǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
姥lǎograndmalight in 姥姥
  • 女woman · nǚ
  • 老old · lǎo

How to write 姥姥

姥 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 姥姥

More words: People, Body & Health

嘉宾jiābīn · esteemed guest嫁jià · (of a woman) to marry舅舅jiùjiu · mother’s brother老百姓lǎobǎixìng · ordinary people老婆lǎopo · wife (informal)离婚líhūn · to divorce恋爱liàn'ài · romantic love女士nǚshì · lady

FAQs

姥姥 (lǎolao) means “grandma (mother’s mother)” or “(coll.) mother’s mother”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it lǎolao: lǎo with a 3rd tone, then lao with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 姥姥 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type laolao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 姥姥 from the suggestions. Typing laolao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
姥姥 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.