HSK 5 · Family

老婆 lǎopo “wife (informal)” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 老婆 means

  1. wife (informal)
  2. (coll.) wife

How to say 老婆

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

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

老婆 in a sentence

  1. 我的老婆是中国人。

    Wǒ de lǎopo shì Zhōngguó rén.

    My wife is Chinese.

    Sentence #1307038 from Tatoeba

  2. 我老婆在附近的超市买蔬菜。

    Wǒ lǎopo zài fùjìn de chāoshì mǎi shūcài.

    My wife buys vegetables at the supermarket nearby.

    Sentence #2143943 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 老婆打呼噜，我该怎么办？

    Lǎopo dǎhūlu, wǒ gāi zěnmebàn?

    My wife snores – what should I do?

    Sentence #1102436 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 老婆 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 老 (lǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
老lǎoprefix used before the surname of
  • 耂old form of 老 · lǎo
  • 匕spoon · bǐ

Memory aidDrawn from an old person with long hair and a walking stick.

The character 婆 (pó) with each of its parts in a different colour
婆pógrandmotherlight in 老婆
  • 波waves · bōSound part
  • 女woman · nǚMeaning part

女 hints at the meaning (woman); 波 (bō) hints at the sound. Compare it with po.

How to write 老婆

老 6 strokes · 婆 11 strokes

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

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

Words related to 老婆

Words with 老

老师lǎoshī · teacher老lǎo · old老人lǎorén · old person老虎lǎohǔ · tiger老实lǎoshi · honest老板lǎobǎn · boss老鼠lǎoshǔ · rat老百姓lǎobǎixìng · ordinary people衰老shuāilǎo · to grow old

More words: People, Body & Health

嫁jià · (of a woman) to marry舅舅jiùjiu · mother’s brother老百姓lǎobǎixìng · ordinary people姥姥lǎolao · grandma (mother’s mother)离婚líhūn · to divorce恋爱liàn'ài · romantic love女士nǚshì · lady青春qīngchūn · youth

FAQs

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