很 (hěn): very, quite, (also, often used before an adjective without intensifying its meaning, i.e. as a meaningless syntactic element)
很 (hěn) is a Chinese character meaning “very.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 彳 (semantic) and 艮 (phonetic). It ranks #138 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 很 step. Its radical form 彳 (step) appears in many related characters such as 得 (dé, to obtain), 往 (wǎng, to go (in a direction)), 待 (dài, to wait).
Definitions
- very
- quite
- (also, often used before an adjective without intensifying its meaning, i.e. as a meaningless syntactic element)
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 很 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 很是adverb | hěn shì | (formal) very |
| 不很 | bù hěn | not very |
| 得很adverb | de hěn | (after an adjective) very |
很 appears in 3 compound words: 33 as the first character, 67 as the last, and 0 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.
Strongest Collocations
Characters that most frequently co-occur with 很 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Example Sentences
这家咖啡店的氛围很好，很适合朋友聚会或者独自工作。
Zhè jiā kāfēi diàn de fēnwéi hěn hǎo, hěn shìhé péngyou jùhuì huòzhě dúzì gōngzuò.
The atmosphere of this coffee shop is very good, very suitable for gatherings with friends or working alone.
紧急储蓄帐户可与401(k)计画结合 但很少雇主这样做
jǐn jí chǔ xù zhàng hù kě yǔ 4 0 1 ( k ) jì huà jié gě dàn hěn shǎo gù zhǔ zhè yàng zuò
Emergency savings accounts can be combined with 401(k) plans but few employers do
和股票与储蓄帐户不同 出售实物白银很难吗
hé gǔ piào yǔ chǔ xù zhàng hù bù tóng chū shòu shí wù bái yín hěn nán ma
And unlike stocks and savings accounts, is it hard to sell physical silver?
...?马斯克提太空兴建资料中心 奥特曼再呛“很荒谬”
. . . ? mǎ sī kè tí tài kōng xīng jiàn zī liào zhōng xīn ào tè 曼 zài qiàng hěn huāng miù
...? Musk mentioned the construction of a data center in space, and Ultraman choked again "It's ridiculous"
资讯很有料|伊美第二轮谈判结束 是伊方期待的“...
zī xùn hěn yǒu liào yī měi dì èr lún tán pàn jié shù shì yī fāng qī dāi de . . .
The second round of talks between Iran and the U.S. has ended, and it's what the Iranian side expects to...
...音集团李亮:炒作“字节是恒科的最大空头”很荒唐也..
. . . yīn jí tuán lǐ liàng chǎo zuò zì jié shì héng kē de zuì dà kōng tóu hěn huāng táng yě . .
... Tone Group Li Liang: speculation "byte is the biggest short of Hengke" is ridiculous and...
我的新髮型是不是很奇怪？
Wǒ de xīn fàxíng shìbùshì hěn qíguài?
Is my new hair style funny?
她真的很聪明，不是吗？
Tā zhēn de hěn cōngming, bùshìma?
She's really smart, isn't she?
你身上有很多钱吗？
Nǐ shēnshang yǒu hěn duō qián ma?
Are you carrying a lot of money?
他为什么看上去很黑？
Tā wèishénme kànshangqu hěn hēi?
Why does he look black?
Character Family
彳 Radical Family — Characters sharing the step radical
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 很 (hěn) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 很 and 眼?
How many strokes does 很 have?
What is the radical of 很?
What are the components of 很?
What are common words containing 很?
What characters sound the same as 很 (hěn)?
Is 很 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 很 with real-time feedback
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