HSK 4 · Emotions

讨厌 tǎoyàn “to dislike” in Chinese

Traditional 討厭

What 讨厌 means

  1. to dislike
  2. to loathe
  3. annoying
  4. troublesome

How to say 讨厌

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale讨tǎo3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale厌yàn4th tone, falling

讨厌 in a sentence

  1. 我讨厌别人让我等很久。

    Wǒ tǎoyàn biéren ràng wǒ děng hěn jiǔ.

    I hate it when people keep me waiting a long time.

    Sentence #476213 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他讨厌打扫自己的房间。

    Tā tǎoyàn dǎsǎo zìjǐ de fángjiān.

    He hates cleaning his room.

    Sentence #4789635 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我最讨厌背诵课文了。

    Wǒ zuì tǎoyàn bèisòng kèwén le.

    What I hate most of all is having to recite texts from memory.

    Sentence #1750554 from Tatoeba

How 讨厌 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 讨 (tǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
讨tǎoto invite
  • 讠speech form of 言 · yán
  • 寸inch · cùn
The character 厌 (yàn) with each of its parts in a different colour
厌yànto loathe; to be fed up with
  • 厂cliff · hǎnMeaning part
  • 犬dog · quǎnSound part

厂 hints at the meaning (cliff); 犬 (quǎn) hints at the sound. Compare it with yàn.

How to write 讨厌

讨 5 strokes · 厌 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 讨厌

Words with 讨

讨论tǎolùn · to discuss讨价还价tǎojiàhuánjià · to bargain检讨jiǎntǎo · self-criticism探讨tàntǎo · to discuss讨好tǎohǎo · to please

Words with 厌

厌恶yànwù · to loathe

More words: Emotions & Feelings

失败shībài · to fail失望shīwàng · disappointed受不了shòubùliǎo · unbearable态度tàidu · attitude同情tóngqíng · to sympathise with无聊wúliáo · bored羡慕xiànmù · to envy心情xīnqíng · mood

FAQs

讨厌 (tǎoyàn) means “to dislike” or “to loathe”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it tǎoyàn: tǎo with a 3rd tone, then yàn with a 4th 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, 讨厌 is written 討厭. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type taoyan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 讨厌 from the suggestions. Typing taoyan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
讨厌 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.