HSK 5 · Body

脑袋 nǎodai “head” in Chinese

Traditional 腦袋

What 脑袋 means

  1. head
  2. skull
  3. brains
  4. mental capability

Measure word 颗 kē or 个 gè · 一颗脑袋 yì kē nǎodai

How to say 脑袋

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale脑nǎo3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own袋daineutral tone, light and short

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

脑袋 in a sentence

  1. 这几天我脑袋里的事情太多了。

    Zhè jǐ tiān wǒ nǎodai lǐ de shìqing tài duō le.

    I’ve got too much on my mind these days.

    Sentence #334712 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 为什么你的脑袋那么聪明呢？

    Wèishénme nǐ de nǎodai nàme cōngming ne?

    Why are you so clever?

    Sentence #5097613 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 你的脑袋充满了新点子。

    Nǐ de nǎodai chōngmǎn le xīn diǎnzi.

    Your head is full of new ideas.

    Sentence #777042 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 脑袋 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 脑 (nǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
脑nǎobrain
  • ⺼meat form of 肉 · ròuMeaning part
  • 亠lid · tóu
  • 凶culprit · xiōng
The character 袋 (dài) with each of its parts in a different colour
袋dàipouchlight in 脑袋
  • 代era · dàiSound part
  • 衣clothes · yīMeaning part

衣 hints at the meaning (clothes); 代 (dài) hints at the sound. Compare it with dai.

How to write 脑袋

脑 10 strokes · 袋 11 strokes

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

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

Words related to 脑袋

Words with 脑

电脑diànnǎo · computer伤脑筋shāngnǎojīn · troublesome

Words with 袋

塑料袋sùliàodài · plastic bag

More words: People, Body & Health

精力jīnglì · energy急诊jízhěn · emergency treatment流泪liúlèi · to shed tears眉毛méimao · eyebrow内科nèikē · internal medicine疲劳píláo · tired嗓子sǎngzi · throat身材shēncái · stature

FAQs

脑袋 (nǎodai) means “head” or “skull”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it nǎodai: nǎo with a 3rd tone, then dai 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, 脑袋 is written 腦袋. The pronunciation is the same.
Use 颗 (kē) or 个 (gè). For example, one head is 一颗脑袋 (yì kē nǎodai).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type naodai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 脑袋 from the suggestions. Typing naodai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
脑袋 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

A dictionary gives you the words. A native teacher shows you how to use them. Start with a free 30-minute intro call.

Book a free intro call

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.