HSK 5 · Verbs

闻 wén “to smell” in Chinese

Traditional 聞

What 闻 means

  1. to smell
  2. to hear of
  3. to hear
  4. news
  5. well-known
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • famous
  • reputation
  • fame

How to say 闻

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale闻wén2nd tone, rising

闻 in a sentence

  1. 闻一下。

    Wén yíxià.

    Smell it.

    Sentence #3845346 from Tatoeba

  2. 但它闻起来很奇怪。

    Dàn tā wén qǐlai hěn qíguài.

    But it smells strange.

    Sentence #918003 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  3. 闻起来好香。

    Wén qǐlai hǎo xiāng.

    It smells so good.

    Sentence #10645552 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 闻 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 闻 (wén) with each of its parts in a different colour
闻wénto hear
  • 门gate · ménSound part
  • 耳ear · ěrMeaning part

耳 hints at the meaning (ear); 门 (mén) hints at the sound. Compare it with wén.

How to write 闻

闻 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 闻

Words with 闻

新闻xīnwén · news见闻jiànwén · what one sees and hears喜闻乐见xǐwénlèjiàn · popular

More words: Common Verbs

危害wēihài · to harm威胁wēixié · to threaten围绕wéirào · to revolve around维修wéixiū · to repair握手wòshǒu · to shake hands限制xiànzhì · to restrict吸收xīshōu · to absorb系xì · (university) department

FAQs

闻 (wén) means “to smell” or “to hear of”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it wén: wén with a 2nd 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, 闻 is written 聞. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type wen with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 闻 from the suggestions. Typing wen into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
闻 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.