HSK 6 · Society

面子 miànzi “face” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 面子 means

  1. face
  2. reputation
  3. prestige
  4. outer surface
  5. the outside of sth
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • social prestige

How to say 面子

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale面miàn4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own子zineutral tone, light and short

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

面子 in a sentence

  1. 你就是要面子。

    Nǐ jiùshì yào miànzi.

    You just care about saving face.

    Sentence #3341549 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 她设法保住面子。

    Tā shèfǎ bǎozhù miànzi.

    She managed to save face.

    Sentence #794084 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 面子 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 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.

The character 子 (zi) with each of its parts in a different colour
子zinoun suffix, as in 椅子 “chair”
  • 了clear · le
  • 一one · yī

Memory aidA baby with its arms out and its legs wrapped up.

How to write 面子

面 9 strokes · 子 3 strokes

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

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

Words related to 面子

Words with 面

前面qiánmiàn · front后面hòumiàn · back面条儿miàntiáor · noodles面miàn · noodles面条miàntiáo · noodles上面shàngmiàn · above下面xiàmiàn · below里面lǐmiàn · inside外面wàimiàn · outside面包miànbāo · bread

Words with 子

儿子érzi · son椅子yǐzi · chair桌子zhuōzi · table杯子bēizi · cup妻子qīzi · wife孩子háizi · child本子běnzi · book子zi · (common noun suffix)裤子kùzi · pants帽子màozi · hat

More words: Society & Law

礼尚往来lǐshàngwǎnglái · courtesy calls for reciprocity流氓liúmáng · hooligan掠夺lüèduó · to plunder埋伏máifu · to lie in ambush名誉míngyù · reputation民间mínjiān · folk民主mínzhǔ · democracy虐待nüèdài · to abuse

FAQs

面子 (miànzi) means “face” or “reputation”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it miànzi: miàn with a 4th tone, then zi with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 面子 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type mianzi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 面子 from the suggestions. Typing mianzi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
面子 is an HSK 6 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.