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How to pronounce 笨

How to pronounce

in Mandarin Chinese

bèn笨

stupid; foolish

HSK 4

Synthesized Mandarin audio · Vivian voice

bènFourth tone

Hear it in conversation

Xiaogua ChineseWatch on YouTube ↗

I think it’s because my ex-boyfriend was very dumb

Select a word for its meaning.

See it in a sentence.

。

We are not stupid.

Hear the difference

A syllable has a shape.

Tone marks show how pitch changes. Colors help you follow each syllable in the app.

ā First toneHigh and level
á Second toneRising
ǎ Third toneLow, then rising in isolation
à Fourth toneFalling
a Neutral toneShort and light

These are dictionary tones. In natural speech, tones can change with context. A third tone often stays low before another syllable.

Dictionary and example sources

Definitions adapt CC-CEDICT through HSK 3.0, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Definitions are shortened for study.

Examples include Lock In original sentences and the Tatoeba Project, under CC BY 2.0 France. Chinese text is normalized to simplified characters. Pinyin follows the study dictionary.