HSK 6 · Adjectives

挑剔 tiāoti “fussy” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 挑剔 means

  1. fussy
  2. picky
  3. to nitpick

How to say 挑剔

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale挑tiāo1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own剔tineutral tone, light and short

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

挑剔 in a sentence

  1. 我不挑剔，我什么都吃。

    Wǒ bù tiāoti, wǒ shénme dōu chī.

    I’m not picky – I’ll eat anything.

    Sentence #8634858 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他对西装和领带的选择非常挑剔。

    Tā duì xīzhuāng hé lǐngdài de xuǎnzé fēicháng tiāoti.

    He’s very particular about his choice of suits and ties.

    Sentence #604481 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 他总是在挑剔别人的毛病。

    Tā zǒngshì zài tiāoti biéren de máobìng.

    He’s always finding fault with other people.

    Sentence #1574175 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 挑剔 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 挑 (tiǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
挑tiāoto carry on a shoulder pole
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒuMeaning part
  • 兆omen · zhàoSound part

扌 hints at the meaning (hand); 兆 (zhào) hints at the sound. Compare it with tiāo.

The character 剔 (tī) with each of its parts in a different colour
剔tīto scrape the meat from boneslight in 挑剔
  • 易to change · yìSound part
  • 刂knife form of 刀 · dāoMeaning part

刂 hints at the meaning (knife); 易 (yì) hints at the sound. Compare it with ti.

How to write 挑剔

挑 9 strokes · 剔 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 挑剔

Words with 挑

挑战tiǎozhàn · to challenge挑拨tiǎobō · to stir up trouble挑衅tiǎoxìn · to provoke

More words: Adjectives

贪婪tānlán · greedy踏实tāshi · down-to-earth特定tèdìng · specific天生tiānshēng · innate体面tǐmiàn · respectable挺拔tǐngbá · tall and straight通俗tōngsú · popular通用tōngyòng · in common use

FAQs

挑剔 (tiāoti) means “fussy” or “picky”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it tiāoti: tiāo with a 1st tone, then ti with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 挑剔 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type tiaoti with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 挑剔 from the suggestions. Typing tiaoti into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
挑剔 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.