HSK 3 · Verbs

明白 míngbai “clear” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 明白 means

  1. clear
  2. obvious
  3. understand
  4. explicit
  5. unequivocal
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • sensible
  • reasonable
  • to realise

How to say 明白

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale明míng2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own白baineutral tone, light and short

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

明白 in a sentence

  1. 我不明白你们在说什么。

    Wǒ bù míngbai nǐmen zài shuō shénme.

    I don’t understand what you’re saying.

    Sentence #989144 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 现在一切都明白了。

    Xiànzài yíqiè dōu míngbai le.

    It all makes sense now.

    Sentence #9550811 from Tatoeba

  3. 我还是有些不明白。

    Wǒ háishi yǒuxiē bù míngbai.

    There’s still something I don’t quite understand.

    Sentence #13943511 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 明白 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 明 (míng) with each of its parts in a different colour
明míngbright
  • 日sun · rì
  • 月moon · yuè

Memory aidThe light of the sun 日 and the moon 月 together: bright.

The character 白 (bái) drawn as one shape
白báiwhitelight in 明白

白 is a single shape of 5 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 明白

明 8 strokes · 白 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 明白

Words with 明

明天míngtiān · tomorrow明年míngnián · next year聪明cōngming · intelligent说明shuōmíng · to explain证明zhèngmíng · proof明确míngquè · clear表明biǎomíng · to make clear发明fāmíng · to invent光明guāngmíng · bright明显míngxiǎn · clear

Words with 白

白天báitiān · daytime白bái · white白色báisè · white苍白cāngbái · pale坦白tǎnbái · frank空白kòngbái · blank蛋白质dànbáizhì · protein

More words: Thinking & Talking

决定juédìng · decide练习liànxí · practice聊天liáotiān · to chat了解liǎojiě · comprehend难过nánguò · be grieved认为rènwéi · believe认真rènzhēn · serious同意tóngyì · agree

FAQs

明白 (míngbai) means “clear” or “obvious”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it míngbai: míng with a 2nd tone, then bai with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 明白 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type mingbai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 明白 from the suggestions. Typing mingbai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
明白 is an HSK 3 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.