HSK 5 · Emotions

在乎 zàihu “to care about” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 在乎 means

  1. to care about
  2. to mind
  3. to rest with
  4. to lie in
  5. to be due to (a certain attribute)
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • (often used in the negative) to care about

How to say 在乎

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale在zài4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own乎huneutral tone, light and short

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

在乎 in a sentence

  1. 我不在乎别人怎么看我的打扮。

    Wǒ bú zàihu biéren zěnme kàn wǒ de dǎban.

    I don’t care what people think about the way I dress.

    Sentence #506877 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  2. 我不在乎花多少钱。

    Wǒ bú zàihu huā duōshǎo qián.

    I don’t care how much it costs.

    Sentence #2301991 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 为什么我应该在乎你怎么想？

    Wèishénme wǒ yīnggāi zàihu nǐ zěnme xiǎng?

    Why should I care what you think?

    Sentence #4394670 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 在乎 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 在 (zài) with each of its parts in a different colour
在zàito exist; to be alive
  • 才ability · cáiSound part
  • 土earth · tǔMeaning part

土 hints at the meaning (earth); 才 (cái) hints at the sound. Compare it with zài.

The character 乎 (hū) drawn as one shape
乎hūinlight in 在乎

乎 is a single shape of 5 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 在乎

在 6 strokes · 乎 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 在乎

Words with 在

在zài · to be at现在xiànzài · now正在zhèngzài · in the process of实在shízài · really存在cúnzài · to exist在于zàiyú · to lie in内在nèizài · inner在意zàiyì · to care about

Words with 乎

几乎jīhū · almost似乎sìhū · it seems

More words: Emotions & Attitudes

遗憾yíhàn · regret勇气yǒngqì · courage愿望yuànwàng · desire运气yùnqi · luck (good or bad)珍惜zhēnxī · to treasure自豪zìháo · proud (of an achievement)爱不释手àibúshìshǒu · to love something too much to put it down爱戴àidài · to love and respect

FAQs

在乎 (zàihu) means “to care about” or “to mind”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it zàihu: zài with a 4th tone, then hu with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 在乎 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zaihu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 在乎 from the suggestions. Typing zaihu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
在乎 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.