HSK 5 · Adjectives

善良 shànliáng “good and honest” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 善良 means

  1. good and honest
  2. kindhearted

How to say 善良

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale善shàn4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale良liáng2nd tone, rising

善良 in a sentence

  1. 她心地善良。

    Tā xīndì shànliáng.

    She has a kind heart.

    Sentence #8490501 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他严厉却善良。

    Tā yánlì què shànliáng.

    He’s strict but kind.

    Sentence #13108935 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  3. 这真是一个很善良的愿望。

    Zhè zhēn shì yí ge hěn shànliáng de yuànwàng.

    That’s a really kind wish.

    Sentence #2092447 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 善良 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 善 (shàn) with each of its parts in a different colour
善shàngood
  • 羊sheep · yáng
  • 丷eight form of 八 · bā
  • 一one · yī
  • 口mouth · kǒu
The character 良 (liáng) with each of its parts in a different colour
良liánggood
  • 丶dot · zhǔ
  • 艮stopping · gěn

How to write 善良

善 12 strokes · 良 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 善良

Words with 善

善于shànyú · to be good at改善gǎishàn · to make better完善wánshàn · complete妥善tuǒshàn · appropriate慈善císhàn · charity

Words with 良

良好liánghǎo · good改良gǎiliáng · to improve良心liángxīn · conscience

More words: Adjectives

全面quánmiàn · comprehensive热烈rèliè · enthusiastic弱ruò · weak傻shǎ · foolish深刻shēnkè · profound神秘shénmì · mysterious生动shēngdòng · vivid时髦shímáo · in vogue

FAQs

善良 (shànliáng) means “good and honest” or “kindhearted”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it shànliáng: shàn with a 4th tone, then liáng with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 善良 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type shanliang with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 善良 from the suggestions. Typing shanliang into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
善良 is an HSK 5 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.