本能

本能 běnnéng

Instinct

本能 in a sentence HSK 6 benneng

What 本能 means

  1. Instinct

These meanings come from the same dictionary that powers the Chinese to Pinyin translator and the Chinese to English translator, so a whole sentence containing 本能 will read it the same way this page does.

Recognise a piece of 本能 but not the character it belongs to? Pick the parts in the component character finder and it will name the character for you — free for every character, with nothing to sign in to.

Character by character

本能 is written with 2 characters. Chinese words are usually easier to remember once you can see what each part contributes.

本
běn
This (mw for books - roots - original)
能
néng
Can (ability - capable - energy)

How to write 本能

Stroke order is not decoration — it is what makes handwriting legible and what dictionary lookup by stroke count depends on.

Practise 本能 on printable 田字格 sheets, trace it in the writing practice tool, or watch any other character in the Stroke Order Animator.

本能 in a sentence

听到响声,他本能地回头看了一眼。
Tīngdào xiǎngshēng, tā běnnéng de huítóu kàn le yì yǎn.
Hearing the noise, he instinctively looked back.
保护孩子是每一位母亲的本能。
Bǎohù háizi shì měi yí wèi mǔqīn de běnnéng.
Protecting her child is every mother's instinct.

Every sentence on this site that uses 本能 is collected on the 本能 sentence page. Want pinyin above a sentence of your own? Paste it into the Pinyin Annotator.

Questions about 本能

What does 本能 mean in English?

本能 is pronounced běnnéng and means Instinct.

How do you pronounce 本能?

本能 is běnnéng in pinyin — written benneng without tone marks. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice.

What are the characters in 本能?

本能 is written with 2 characters: 本 (běn) This (mw for books - roots - original), 能 (néng) Can (ability - capable - energy). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.

Is 本能 an HSK word?

Yes — 本能 is on the official HSK 6 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 6 page.

Studied around the same time

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