CHINESE ADJECTIVES

When you’re learning Chinese, you’ll find it insanely difficult to communicate when
simple, key adjectives are missing from your vocabulary.

1. piào liang — pretty

2. hǎo — good
 can be used the same way the words “good” or “well” are used in English.
 can be used by Chinese speaker to describe positive experiences, feelings, or things
 it’s also commonly used in conjunction with other words to make new, logical meanings
3. bù hǎo / huài— bad
 Saying “bad” is quite simple in Mandarin—just say “not good!”
4. měi— beautiful
5. dà— big
6. xiǎo— small
7. pàng— fat
8. shòu— skinny/thin
9. gāo— tall
10. ǎi— short (in height)
11. cháng — long
 In Chinese, there are two ways to say “long,” but they have slightly different meanings:
cháng, refers to length and jiǔ refers to time.
12. duǎn) — short (in length)
13. máng— busy
14. lèi — tired
15. duō — many, a lot
 duō is a powerful, multifaceted little word. It can be used as an adjective, a quantity and
a question word.
 But you can also use it when you want to say there’s a lot (or too much) of something,
like in the example sentence below.
16. shǎo — few
17. kě ài — cute
 comes from the word kě yǐ (can) and ài (love) so this adjective means “can love.”
18. hǎo chī — delicious
 literally means “good eat.”
19. nán chī— not delicious
 nán means “hard” or “difficult,” so to say something doesn’t taste good, all you need to
say is that it’s literally “hard to eat”
20. hǎo wán — fun
 the word for “fun” in Chinese literally means “good play.”
21. yǒu qù — interesting, funny
 There are two ways to say “interesting” in Mandarin: yǒu qù and yǒu yì si.
22. wú liáo — boring, bored
 can be used to say that something/someone is boring or someone/something is bored.
23. kuài — fast
 it sounds similar to “quick.”
24. màn — slow
25. róng yì — easy
26. nán — hard
 nán means “hard” or “difficult.”
27. xīn — new
 sounds like “shiny.” So when I hear it, I think of shiny new things.
28. lǎo — old
 Another multi-use word, lǎo can describe someone or something’s age, but is also used
in conjunction with other words to create new meanings (especially when denoting
authority or superiority in status).
29. cōng míng — smart
  literally means “bright.” This is helpful since “bright” can be used in English to mean
smart or clever.
30. yuǎn — far
 This word is easy to mix up with yuán, the Chinese currency. Just remember that yuǎn
has a third tone instead of a second. You can remember this by imagining the dip in
the third tone represents a valley, and the other side is far away.
31. jìn— close
32. pián yi — cheap
33. guì — expensive
 No matter how much haggling you might do, some things will just always be expensive.
In this case, you might want to tell the shop owner or the street vendor that the item
you’re looking at is just a tad over budget.
34. kuài lè — happy
 It is helpful for describing emotions, but it’s also the word you use to wish someone a
happy holiday—like in the phrase.
35. shāng xīn— sad
 literally means “hurt heart.”
36. yǒu míng— famous
 The word “famous” literally means “has name.”
37. nèi xiàng — introverted
 The word nèi means “inside, within,” and xiàng means “orientation, direction.” So to
say someone is introverted is like saying they’re inner-oriented.
38. wài xiàng — extroverted/outgoing
 wài means “outside.”
39. rè — hot
 All it takes to remember this Chinese adjective is thinking of the English phrase red-hot.
40. lěng — cold
 How should you remember this word? Breathing in cold air can make your lěng (s) hurt.
41. nǔ lì — hard working
 lì means “force” or “power.” When combined with nǔ, it becomes “hard-working”.
 it can mean either to “do something hard” or “do something with effort.”
42. lǎn — lazy
 This word might come in handy on the weekends when your friends want to go out but
all you want to do is stay home to have a movie marathon on the couch.
43. shuài — handsome
 This is like the Chinese version of the Korean “oppa.” But in English, we’d usually just
say “handsome/cute boy” or “a lady’s man.”
44. hǎo kàn — good-looking
 the word kàn can mean “see, look, read or watch”
45. nán kàn— bad-looking, ugly
 bad-looking in Chinese is literally “hard to look at
46. tián — sweet
47. là — spicy, hot
48. suān — sour
49. gān jìng— clean
 both an adjective and a verb (meaning “to clean”)
50. zāng — dirty