HSK 6 · Function Words

宁肯 nìngkěn “would rather” in Chinese

Traditional 寧肯

What 宁肯 means

  1. would rather
  2. prefer to
  3. it would be better…
  4. would prefer

How to say 宁肯

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale宁nìng4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale肯kěn3rd tone, dipping

宁肯 in a sentence

  1. 与其知道你要走，我宁肯你没有回来过。

    Yǔqí zhīdao nǐ yào zǒu, wǒ nìngkěn nǐ méiyǒu huílai guo.

    Rather than know you were going to leave, I’d sooner you had never come back at all.

    Sentence #380687 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 宁肯 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 宁 (nìng) with each of its parts in a different colour
宁nìngwould rather
  • 宀roof · miánMeaning part
  • 丁part of the characterSound part
The character 肯 (kěn) with each of its parts in a different colour
肯kěnto agree; to consent
  • 止stop · zhǐ
  • ⺼meat form of 肉 · ròu

How to write 宁肯

宁 5 strokes · 肯 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 宁肯

Words with 宁

宁可nìngkě · preferably安宁ānníng · peaceful宁愿nìngyuàn · would rather

Words with 肯

肯定kěndìng · to be certain

More words: Function Words & Grammar

枚méi · (measure word for coins免得miǎnde · so as not to明明míngmíng · clearly默默mòmò · silently宁愿nìngyuàn · would rather哦ò · oh (indicating understanding)偏偏piānpiān · unexpectedly譬如pìrú · for example

FAQs

宁肯 (nìngkěn) means “would rather” or “prefer to”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it nìngkěn: nìng with a 4th tone, then kěn with a 3rd 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, 宁肯 is written 寧肯. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ningken with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 宁肯 from the suggestions. Typing ningken into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
宁肯 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.