HSK 6 · Emotions

伤脑筋 shāngnǎojīn “troublesome” in Chinese

Traditional 傷腦筋

What 伤脑筋 means

  1. troublesome
  2. to cause a headache
  3. to be a real headache
  4. to find sth a real headache
  5. to beat one’s brains

How to say 伤脑筋

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale伤shāng1st tone, high and level
  • 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 first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale筋jīn1st tone, high and level

伤脑筋 in a sentence

  1. 真伤脑筋。

    Zhēn shāngnǎojīn.

    What a headache.

    Sentence #1637796 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 伤脑筋 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 伤 (shāng) drawn as one shape
伤shāngto injure

伤 is a single shape of 6 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

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 筋 (jīn) with each of its parts in a different colour
筋jīnmuscle
  • ⺮bamboo form of 竹 · zhú
  • 肋ribs · lèi

How to write 伤脑筋

伤 6 strokes · 脑 10 strokes · 筋 12 strokes

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

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

Words related to 伤脑筋

Words with 伤

伤心shāngxīn · to grieve受伤shòushāng · to be injured伤害shānghài · to hurt

Words with 脑

电脑diànnǎo · computer脑袋nǎodai · head

More words: Emotions & Attitudes

忍耐rěnnài · to be patient忍受rěnshòu · to bear容忍róngrěn · to tolerate荣幸róngxìng · honoured盛情shèngqíng · great kindness深情厚谊shēnqínghòuyì · deep friendship受罪shòuzuì · to suffer舒畅shūchàng · happy

FAQs

伤脑筋 (shāngnǎojīn) means “troublesome” or “to cause a headache”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it shāngnǎojīn: shāng with a 1st tone, then nǎo with a 3rd tone, then jīn with a 1st 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, 伤脑筋 is written 傷腦筋. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type shangnaojin with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 伤脑筋 from the suggestions. Typing shangnaojin into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
伤脑筋 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.