HSK 5 · Adjectives

老实 lǎoshi “honest” in Chinese

Traditional 老實

What 老实 means

  1. honest
  2. sincere
  3. well-behaved
  4. naive
  5. gullible

How to say 老实

  • 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实shineutral tone, light and short

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

老实 in a sentence

  1. 我觉得她很老实。

    Wǒ juéde tā hěn lǎoshi.

    I think she’s honest.

    Sentence #683641 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 她这人十分老实，绝对可信。

    Tā zhè rén shífēn lǎoshi, juéduì kěxìn.

    She’s very honest – you can trust her completely.

    Sentence #350648 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  3. 老实说，我不太喜欢她。

    Lǎoshi shuō, wǒ bú tài xǐhuan tā.

    To be honest, I don’t really like her.

    Sentence #1883693 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 老实 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 实 (shí) with each of its parts in a different colour
实shíreallight in 老实
  • 宀roof · mián
  • 头head · tóu

Memory aidSimplified from 實, a house 宀 full of strings of coins: solid, real.

How to write 老实

老 6 strokes · 实 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 老实

Words with 老

老师lǎoshī · teacher老lǎo · old老人lǎorén · old person老虎lǎohǔ · tiger老婆lǎopo · wife (informal)老板lǎobǎn · boss老鼠lǎoshǔ · rat老百姓lǎobǎixìng · ordinary people衰老shuāilǎo · to grow old

Words with 实

其实qíshí · actually诚实chéngshí · honest实际shíjì · actual确实quèshí · indeed实在shízài · really实际上shíjìshàng · in fact果实guǒshí · fruit (of a plant)实话shíhuà · truth实现shíxiàn · to achieve结实jiēshi · sturdy

More words: Adjectives

可怕kěpà · awful刻苦kèkǔ · hardworking客观kèguān · objective烂làn · rotten乐观lèguān · optimistic了不起liǎobuqǐ · amazing良好liánghǎo · good灵活línghuó · flexible

FAQs

老实 (lǎoshi) means “honest” or “sincere”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it lǎoshi: lǎo with a 3rd tone, then shi 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, 老实 is written 老實. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type laoshi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 老实 from the suggestions. Typing laoshi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
老实 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.