HSK 3 · Adjectives

清楚 qīngchu “clear” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 清楚 means

  1. clear
  2. distinct
  3. be clear about
  4. to understand thoroughly

How to say 清楚

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale清qīng1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own楚chuneutral tone, light and short

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

清楚 in a sentence

  1. 我不是很清楚这个句子的意思。

    Wǒ bú shì hěn qīngchu zhè ge jùzi de yìsi.

    I’m not quite sure what this sentence means.

    Sentence #2886019 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 太暗了，看不清楚。

    Tài àn le, kàn bu qīngchu.

    It’s too dark to see clearly.

    Sentence #349768 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 这个男人的名字我记得很清楚。

    Zhè ge nánrén de míngzi wǒ jìde hěn qīngchu.

    I remember this man’s name very clearly.

    Sentence #791593 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 清楚 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 清 (qīng) with each of its parts in a different colour
清qīngclear; clean
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 青blue-green · qīngSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 青 (qīng) hints at the sound. Compare it with qīng.

The character 楚 (chǔ) with each of its parts in a different colour
楚chǔdistinctlight in 清楚
  • 林forest · lín
  • 疋roll of cloth · pǐ

How to write 清楚

清 11 strokes · 楚 13 strokes

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

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

Words related to 清楚

Words with 清

清淡qīngdàn · light (of food清晨qīngchén · early morning清真qīngzhēn · halal澄清chéngqīng · to clarify清除qīngchú · to clear away清理qīnglǐ · to clear up清澈qīngchè · clear清洁qīngjié · clean清晰qīngxī · clear清醒qīngxǐng · sober

More words: Adjectives

难nán · difficult年轻niánqīng · young胖pàng · fat奇怪qíguài · strange热情rèqíng · cordial容易róngyì · easy瘦shòu · thin特别tèbié · special

FAQs

清楚 (qīngchu) means “clear” or “distinct”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it qīngchu: qīng with a 1st tone, then chu with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 清楚 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type qingchu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 清楚 from the suggestions. Typing qingchu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
清楚 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.