老 lǎo in a sentence
Old (boss - experienced - tough - always)
老 (lǎo) means Old (boss - experienced - tough - always). Below are 24 of the 64 sentences on this site that use it — with pinyin, an English translation and audio. All of them were written by hand; none is machine generated.
Dictionary examples
我爷爷已经很 老 了。
Wǒ yéye yǐjing hěn lǎo le.
My grandfather is quite old now.
Dictionary example · HSK 3 · 老
这是一个很 老 的城市。
Zhè shì yí gè hěn lǎo de chéngshì.
This is a very old city.
Dictionary example · HSK 3 · 老
老 师在讲新课。
Lǎoshī zài jiǎng xīn kè.
The teacher is teaching a new lesson.
Dictionary example · HSK 3 · 讲
From the graded readers
我的 老 师姓王。
wǒ de(possessive) lǎoshī xìng wáng.
My teacher's surname is Wang.
Graded reader · HSK 1 · Learning Chinese
我旁边坐着一位 老 人。
wǒ pángbiān zuòzhe yī wèi lǎorén.
An older man was sitting next to me.
Graded reader · HSK 2 · The Train to Shanghai
李 老 师上课非常认真。
lǐ lǎoshī shàng kè fēicháng rènzhēn.
Teacher Li is extremely conscientious in class.
Graded reader · HSK 2 · My Chinese Teacher
我爸爸是 老 师，他很忙。
wǒ bàba shì lǎoshī, tā hěn máng.
My dad is a teacher and he's very busy.
Graded reader · HSK 1 · My Family
我离开 老 家已经十年了。
wǒ líkāi lǎojiā yǐjīng shínián le / liǎo / liào.
It's been ten years since I left my home town.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · Going Back Home
王 老 师很好，他说话很慢。
wáng lǎoshī hěnhǎo, tā shuōhuà hěn màn.
Mr Wang is very good — he speaks slowly.
Graded reader · HSK 1 · Learning Chinese
我敲了门，开门的是一位 老 先生。
wǒ qiāo le / liǎo / liào mén, kāimén de / dì shì yī wèi lǎo xiānsheng.
I knocked, and an elderly man opened the door.
Graded reader · HSK 3 · The Neighbour Upstairs
后来我看见一个 老 人在路口卖红薯。
hòulái wǒ kànjiàn yīgè lǎorén zài lù kǒu mài hóngshǔ.
Then I saw an old man selling sweet potatoes on the corner.
Graded reader · HSK 3 · Getting Lost
From the travel phrasebook
From the grammar library
老 师的名字很长。
Lǎoshī de míngzi hěn cháng.
The teacher's name is long.
Grammar library · HSK 1 · 的 for possession and description
他被 老 师批评了。
Tā bèi lǎoshī pīpíng le.
He was told off by the teacher.
Grammar library · HSK 3 · 被 passive
老 appears in 64 sentences on this site; the 24 shortest and most direct are shown. The rest are on the pages they were written for — the graded readers, the phrasebook and the grammar library.
Words that contain 老
Each of these has sentences of its own, so you can see the character doing a different job in each one.
Questions about 老
How is 老 used in a sentence?
This page shows 64 sentences using 老 (lǎo, "Old (boss - experienced - tough - always)"), each with pinyin, an English translation and audio. Every one of them was written by hand for this site.
Are these sentences machine generated?
No. They come from the site's own dictionary examples, graded readers, travel phrasebook and grammar library — all written by a person. A word with no sentence gets no page here, rather than a page of invented ones.
Why do some sentences show 老 inside a longer word?
Because that is where a single character usually lives. Seeing 老 inside the words it builds is how the character stops being an isolated symbol and starts being something you can read.
Is 老 an HSK word?
Yes — 老 is on the official HSK 3 vocabulary list, and you can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 3 page.
Where can I see the full entry for 老?
The dictionary page for 老 has its stroke order, its traditional form, every sense the dictionary lists and a character-by-character breakdown. It is linked at the top of this page.
Keep going
Read the full entry for 老, write a sentence of your own and check it in the Pinyin Annotator, drill it with HSK 3 flashcards, or search the whole sentence bank for another word.
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