HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Thinking

怕 pà “to fear” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 怕 means

  1. to fear
  2. to be afraid
  3. to dread
  4. to be unable to endure
  5. perhaps

How to say 怕

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale怕pà4th tone, falling

怕 in a sentence

  1. 你怕狗吗？

    Nǐ pà gǒu ma?

    Are you afraid of dogs?

    Sentence #7781713 from Tatoeba

  2. 不要怕！

    Búyào pà!

    Don’t be afraid!

    Sentence #13194104 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 动物怕火。

    Dòngwù pà huǒ.

    Animals are afraid of fire.

    Sentence #512178 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 怕 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 怕 (pà) with each of its parts in a different colour
怕pàto be afraid
  • 忄heart form of 心 · xīnMeaning part
  • 白white · báiSound part

忄 hints at the meaning (heart); 白 (bái) hints at the sound. Compare it with pà.

How to write 怕

怕 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 怕

Words with 怕

害怕hàipà · afraid of恐怕kǒngpà · I’m afraid (that)可怕kěpà · awful哪怕nǎpà · even

More words: Thinking & Feeling

想到xiǎngdào · to think of感到gǎndào · to feel记jì · to remember关注guānzhù · to pay close attention to心里xīnlǐ · in one’s heart懂得dǒngde · to understand心xīn · heart感gǎn · (suffix) sense of …

FAQs

怕 (pà) means “to fear” or “to be afraid”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it pà: pà with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 怕 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type pa with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 怕 from the suggestions. Typing pa into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
怕 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 3 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.