HSK 6 · Adjectives

坦白 tǎnbái “frank” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 坦白 means

  1. frank
  2. candid
  3. to confess
  4. honest
  5. forthcoming

How to say 坦白

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale坦tǎn3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale白bái2nd tone, rising

坦白 in a sentence

  1. 坦白地说，我不喜欢你的发型。

    Tǎnbái de shuō, wǒ bù xǐhuan nǐ de fàxíng.

    Frankly, I don’t like your haircut.

    Sentence #2335917 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我该不该跟她坦白我的过去？

    Wǒ gāi bu gāi gēn tā tǎnbái wǒ de guòqù?

    Should I confess my past to her?

    Sentence #6467557 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 坦白 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 坦 (tǎn) with each of its parts in a different colour
坦tǎnflat
  • 土earth · tǔMeaning part
  • 旦dawn · dànSound part

土 hints at the meaning (earth); 旦 (dàn) hints at the sound. Compare it with tǎn.

The character 白 (bái) drawn as one shape
白báiwhite

白 is a single shape of 5 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 坦白

坦 8 strokes · 白 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 坦白

Words with 坦

坦率tǎnshuài · frank平坦píngtǎn · flat

Words with 白

白天báitiān · daytime白bái · white白色báisè · white明白míngbai · clear苍白cāngbái · pale空白kòngbái · blank蛋白质dànbáizhì · protein

More words: Adjectives

斯文sīwen · refined肆无忌惮sìwújìdàn · unrestrained私自sīzì · privately随意suíyì · as one likes贪婪tānlán · greedy踏实tāshi · down-to-earth特定tèdìng · specific天生tiānshēng · innate

FAQs

坦白 (tǎnbái) means “frank” or “candid”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it tǎnbái: tǎn with a 3rd tone, then bái with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 坦白 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type tanbai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 坦白 from the suggestions. Typing tanbai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
坦白 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.