HSK 3.0 Level 2 · Places

里面 lǐmiàn “inside” in Chinese

Traditional 裡面

What 里面 means

  1. inside
  2. interior

How to say 里面

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale里lǐ3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale面miàn4th tone, falling

里面 in a sentence

  1. 我在里面等你。

    Wǒ zài lǐmiàn děng nǐ.

    I’ll wait for you inside.

    Sentence #9453413 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我想看一下里面有什么。

    Wǒ xiǎng kàn yíxià lǐmiàn yǒu shénme.

    I want to see what’s inside.

    Sentence #816367 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 这个房间里面很暖和。

    Zhè ge fángjiān lǐmiàn hěn nuǎnhuo.

    This room is very warm.

    Sentence #1950547 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 里面 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 里 (lǐ) with each of its parts in a different colour
里lǐlining
  • 田field · tián
  • 土earth · tǔ

Memory aidFields 田 and earth 土: a village. As a simplified character it also stands for 裏, “inside”.

The character 面 (miàn) drawn as one shape
面miànface

面 is a single shape of 9 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidDrawn from a face inside its outline.

How to write 里面

里 7 strokes · 面 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 里面

Words with 里

Words with 面

More words: Places & Getting Around

FAQs

里面 (lǐmiàn) means “inside” or “interior”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 2 word.
Say it lǐmiàn: lǐ with a 3rd tone, then miàn with a 4th 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, 里面 is written 裡面. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type limian with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 里面 from the suggestions. Typing limian into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
里面 is an HSK 3.0 Level 2 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 2 word list. It is not on the older 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.