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HSK 3

坏

bad; broken; spoiled

adjectiveneutral2 episodes
坏
huài4th tone

HSK level

1
2
3
4
5
6
Pinyin
huài
Part of speech
adjective
Level
HSK 3
Strokes
7
Register
neutral
In episodes
2

Stroke order for 坏

坏 is written with 7 strokes. The animation replays automatically.

What does 坏 mean?

坏 (huài) is an adjective covering a wider range than English 'bad.'

It means: (1) bad in moral or quality terms — 坏人 'a bad person,' 坏天气 'bad weather'; (2) broken / out of order — 电视坏了 'the TV is broken'; and (3) spoiled / gone bad (food) — 牛奶坏了 'the milk has gone bad.' Two patterns English speakers should learn: first, when 坏 means 'broken' or 'spoiled,' it usually appears with 了 (huài le) to signal the change of state — 'has become broken.' Saying just 这个电视坏 sounds incomplete; you need 这个电视坏了.

Second, 坏 can attach to verbs as a resultative complement intensifying to 'extremely' — 累坏了 'exhausted,' 吓坏了 'scared to death,' 气坏了 'furious.' That construction is one of the highest-yield uses of 坏 in conversation.

Hear 坏 in real episodes

坏 appears in 2 Fluentide podcast episodes at natural native speed — each with the full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.

Jason Kelce Is Asking Fans to Send Their Pee to AI Data Centers. What He Actually Wants to Talk About Is Water.坏 spoken at natural speedeasyThe Oldest US Senator Wrote a Farewell to His 49-Year-Old Vacuum Cleaner. Its Name Was Beth.坏 spoken at natural speedbeginner
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Example sentences

我的手机坏了。

Wǒ de shǒujī huài le.

My phone is broken.

spoken

这个牛奶坏了，别喝。

Zhège niúnǎi huài le, bié hē.

This milk has gone bad, don't drink it.

spoken

他不是坏人。

Tā bú shì huàirén.

He's not a bad person.

neutral

今天累坏了。

Jīntiān lèi huài le.

I'm exhausted today.

spoken

吃太多甜的对身体不好。

Chī tài duō tián de duì shēntǐ bù hǎo.

Eating too many sweets is bad for your health.

neutral

Common phrases with 坏

坏人huàiréna bad person; villain
坏了huài le(it's) broken / gone bad
累坏了lèi huài leexhausted; worn out
吓坏了xià huài lescared to death
坏习惯huài xíguànbad habit

Synonyms

差chà

差 means 'poor / sub-par in quality.' For describing low quality, both can work, but 差 is about performance (成绩很差 'grades are poor'); 坏 is about being morally bad, broken, or spoiled. A bad student is 差, not 坏.

烂làn

烂 means 'rotten / rotten-quality' — stronger and more colloquial than 坏. 苹果烂了 (the apple is rotten) is worse than 苹果坏了 (the apple has gone bad). 烂 also means 'terrible/awful' in slang (烂片 'a terrible movie').

破pò

破 means 'broken / torn,' specifically about physical damage — torn clothes, a broken window. 坏 is broader (broken function, spoiled food, bad people). A torn shirt is 破, not 坏; a broken phone is 坏, not 破.

Don't confuse 坏 with

怀huái

Visually almost identical to 坏 — only the radical differs (土 'earth' for 坏 vs 忄 'heart' for 怀). 怀 means 'to cherish / to be pregnant' (怀孕). Different tone too (huái vs huài). Easy to mis-write.

差chà / chā

差 has multiple meanings (poor quality, to differ, to lack). For 'bad' it overlaps with 坏 only in the 'low quality' sense. A bad person is 坏人, never 差人.

FAQ

Related words from the same episodes

带to carry, to take along电脑computer记住to remember, to commit to memory家里at home老old美国America热hot水water岁years old它it吸尘器vacuum cleaner想to think; to want to

Acquire it by listening

Meet 坏 again — in real Chinese, at your level.

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