HSK 4 · Objects

脾气 píqi “temper” in Chinese

Traditional 脾氣

What 脾气 means

  1. temper
  2. temperament
  3. character
  4. disposition
  5. bad temper

Measure word 股 gǔ · 一股脾气 yì gǔ píqi

How to say 脾气

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale脾pí2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own气qineutral tone, light and short

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

脾气 in a sentence

  1. 她脾气有点坏。

    Tā píqi yǒudiǎn huài.

    She has a bit of a bad temper.

    Sentence #3031996 from Tatoeba

  2. 他是个好脾气的人。

    Tā shì ge hǎo píqi de rén.

    He’s a good-natured person.

    Sentence #9012191 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 老师很容易对学生发脾气。

    Lǎoshī hěn róngyì duì xuésheng fā píqi.

    The teacher loses his temper with the students easily.

    Sentence #767105 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 脾气 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 脾 (pí) with each of its parts in a different colour
脾píspleen
  • ⺼meat form of 肉 · ròuMeaning part
  • 卑humble · bēiSound part

⺼ hints at the meaning (meat); 卑 (bēi) hints at the sound. Compare it with pí.

The character 气 (qì) drawn as one shape
气qigas; air

气 is a single shape of 4 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidDrawn from layers of vapour rising: air, steam, breath.

How to write 脾气

脾 12 strokes · 气 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 脾气

Words with 气

天气tiānqì · weather不客气bú kèqi · you’re welcome生气shēngqì · angry气qì · air力气lìqi · strength空气kōngqì · air气候qìhòu · climate淘气táoqì · naughty小气xiǎoqì · stingy气氛qìfēn · atmosphere

More words: Everyday Things

老虎lǎohǔ · tiger毛巾máojīn · towel目的mùdì · purpose内容nèiróng · content乒乓球pīngpāngqiú · table tennis桥qiáo · bridge情况qíngkuàng · circumstances区别qūbié · difference

FAQs

脾气 (píqi) means “temper” or “temperament”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it píqi: pí with a 2nd tone, then qi 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, 脾气 is written 脾氣. The pronunciation is the same.
Use 股 (gǔ). For example, one temper is 一股脾气 (yì gǔ píqi).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type piqi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 脾气 from the suggestions. Typing piqi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
脾气 is an HSK 4 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.