HSK 5 · Adjectives

温柔 wēnróu “gentle” in Chinese

Traditional 溫柔

What 温柔 means

  1. gentle
  2. tender
  3. soft
  4. gentle and soft
  5. sweet (commonly used to describe a girl or woman)

How to say 温柔

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale温wēn1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale柔róu2nd tone, rising

温柔 in a sentence

  1. 她很温柔。

    Tā hěn wēnróu.

    She’s very gentle.

    Sentence #1516451 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 多温柔的手势啊。

    Duō wēnróu de shǒushì a.

    What a gentle gesture.

    Sentence #9690004 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 他把他的手温柔地放在她的肩上。

    Tā bǎ tā de shǒu wēnróu de fàng zài tā de jiān shàng.

    He gently put his hand on her shoulder.

    Sentence #766401 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 温柔 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 温 (wēn) with each of its parts in a different colour
温wēnwarm; lukewarm
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 昷warmSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 昷 () hints at the sound. Compare it with wēn.

The character 柔 (róu) with each of its parts in a different colour
柔róusoft
  • 矛spear · máo
  • 木tree · mù

How to write 温柔

温 12 strokes · 柔 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 温柔

Words with 温

温度wēndù · temperature温暖wēnnuǎn · warm温和wēnhé · mild温带wēndài · temperate zone

Words with 柔

柔和róuhé · soft

More words: Adjectives

完善wánshàn · complete完整wánzhěng · complete伟大wěidà · great温暖wēnnuǎn · warm文明wénmíng · civilised稳定wěndìng · steady系统xìtǒng · system瞎xiā · blind

FAQs

温柔 (wēnróu) means “gentle” or “tender”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it wēnróu: wēn with a 1st tone, then róu 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, 温柔 is written 溫柔. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type wenrou with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 温柔 from the suggestions. Typing wenrou into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
温柔 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.