HSK 4 · Emotions

辛苦 xīnkǔ “exhausting” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 辛苦 means

  1. exhausting
  2. hard
  3. tough
  4. arduous
  5. to work hard
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to go to a lot of trouble

How to say 辛苦

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale辛xīn1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale苦kǔ3rd tone, dipping

辛苦 in a sentence

  1. 大家辛苦了！

    Dàjiā xīnkǔ le!

    Thanks for all your hard work, everyone!

    Sentence #13549383 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 你工作得太辛苦了。放轻松一下。

    Nǐ gōngzuò de tài xīnkǔ le. Fàng qīngsōng yíxià.

    You’re working too hard. Take it easy for a bit.

    Sentence #775650 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  3. 做教师很辛苦。

    Zuò jiàoshī hěn xīnkǔ.

    Being a teacher is very hard work.

    Sentence #6325112 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 辛苦 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 辛 (xīn) with each of its parts in a different colour
辛xīnhot or pungent
  • 立stand · lì
  • 十ten · shí
The character 苦 (kǔ) with each of its parts in a different colour
苦kǔbitter
  • 艹grass form of 艸 · cǎoMeaning part
  • 古old · gǔSound part

艹 hints at the meaning (grass); 古 (gǔ) hints at the sound. Compare it with kǔ.

How to write 辛苦

辛 7 strokes · 苦 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 辛苦

Words with 辛

辛勤xīnqín · hardworking

Words with 苦

苦kǔ · bitter艰苦jiānkǔ · difficult刻苦kèkǔ · hardworking痛苦tòngkǔ · pain吃苦chīkǔ · to endure hardship苦涩kǔsè · bitter苦尽甘来kǔjìngānlái · after hardship comes happiness

More words: Emotions & Feelings

吃惊chījīng · to be startled得意déyì · proud of oneself同情tóngqíng · to sympathise with无聊wúliáo · bored羡慕xiànmù · to envy心情xīnqíng · mood幸福xìngfú · happiness愉快yúkuài · cheerful

FAQs

辛苦 (xīnkǔ) means “exhausting” or “hard”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it xīnkǔ: xīn with a 1st tone, then kǔ with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 辛苦 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type xinku with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 辛苦 from the suggestions. Typing xinku into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
辛苦 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.