开玩笑

开玩笑 kāiwánxiào

Joke (make fun of)

HSK 4 繁體 開玩笑 kaiwanxiao

What 开玩笑 means

  1. Joke (make fun of)

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 开玩笑 will read it the same way this page does.

Character by character

开玩笑 is written with 3 characters. Chinese words are usually easier to remember once you can see what each part contributes.

kāi
Open (start - drive - boil)
wán / wàn
Play (have a good time - enjoy - visit); Antiques
xiào
Laugh (smile)

How to write 开玩笑

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

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

Questions about 开玩笑

What does 开玩笑 mean in English?

开玩笑 is pronounced kāiwánxiào and means Joke (make fun of).

How do you pronounce 开玩笑?

开玩笑 is kāiwánxiào in pinyin — written kaiwanxiao without tone marks. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice.

What are the characters in 开玩笑?

开玩笑 is written with 3 characters: 开 (kāi) Open (start - drive - boil), 玩 (wán / wàn) Play (have a good time - enjoy - visit); Antiques, 笑 (xiào) Laugh (smile). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.

How is 开玩笑 written in traditional Chinese?

開玩笑. The simplified form 开玩笑 is used in mainland China and Singapore; 開玩笑 is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Both are pronounced kāiwánxiào.

Is 开玩笑 an HSK word?

Yes — 开玩笑 is on the official HSK 4 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 4 page.

Studied around the same time

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Translate a whole sentence containing 开玩笑 with the Chinese to Pinyin translator, study it alongside the rest of HSK 4, drill it with HSK flashcards, or save it above and review it on your review deck.

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