HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Thinking

心里 xīnlǐ “in one’s heart” in Chinese

Traditional 心裡

What 心里 means

  1. in one’s heart
  2. in one’s mind
  3. chest
  4. heart
  5. mind

How to say 心里

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale心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里lǐ3rd tone, dipping

心里 in a sentence

  1. 我心里充满着快乐。

    Wǒ xīnlǐ chōngmǎn zhe kuàilè.

    My heart is full of happiness.

    Sentence #503219 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 你住在我心里。

    Nǐ zhù zài wǒ xīnlǐ.

    You live in my heart.

    Sentence #4490242 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  3. 我跟她说了心里话。

    Wǒ gēn tā shuō le xīnlǐhuà.

    I told her what was really on my mind.

    Sentence #900797 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 心里 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 心 (xīn) drawn as one shape
心xīnheart

心 is a single shape of 4 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidDrawn from a heart. On the left of a character it is written 忄.

The character 里 (lǐ) with each of its parts in a different colour
里lǐlining
  • 田field · tián
  • 土earth · tǔ

Memory aidFields 田 and earth 土: a village. As a simplified character it also stands for 裏, “inside”.

How to write 心里

心 4 strokes · 里 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 心里

Words with 心

担心dānxīn · to worry放心fàngxīn · relax关心guānxīn · concerned about/with小心xiǎoxīn · be careful心xīn · heart伤心shāngxīn · to grieve粗心cūxīn · careless耐心nàixīn · to be patient开心kāixīn · to feel happy心情xīnqíng · mood

Words with 里

里lǐ · inside那里nàli · there这里zhèlǐ · here哪里nǎlǐ · where?里面lǐmiàn · inside公里gōnglǐ · kilometre里程碑lǐchéngbēi · milestone

More words: Thinking & Feeling

感到gǎndào · to feel怕pà · to fear记jì · to remember关注guānzhù · to pay close attention to懂得dǒngde · to understand喜爱xǐ'ài · to like认得rènde · to recognise心xīn · heart

FAQs

心里 (xīnlǐ) means “in one’s heart” or “in one’s mind”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it xīnlǐ: xīn with a 1st tone, then lǐ with a 3rd 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, 心里 is written 心裡. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type xinli with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 心里 from the suggestions. Typing xinli into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
心里 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 4 word list. It is not on the older 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.