争
先
恐
后

Striving to be first and fearing to be last (idiom) in Chinese: 争先恐后 (zhēng xiān kǒng hòu)

zhēng xiān kǒng hòu

striving to be first and fearing to be last (idiom)

HSK 3.0 Levels 7-9Traditional: 爭先恐後1 example sentence

Definitions

  1. 1striving to be first and fearing to be last (idiom); outdoing one another

Stroke order

Watch how to write 争先恐后 stroke by stroke.

争
先
恐
后

Zhuyin

This word’s pronunciation in Bopomofo.

Learn how to read Zhuyin

ㄓㄥ

zhēng

ㄓ/ zhㄥ/ eng—/ first tone

ㄒㄧㄢ

xiān

ㄒ/ xㄧ/ iㄢ/ an—/ first tone

ㄎㄨㄥˇ

kǒng

ㄎ/ kㄨ/ uㄥ/ engˇ/ third tone

ㄏㄡˋ

hòu

ㄏ/ hㄡ/ ouˋ/ fourth tone

Simplified & traditional

争先恐后

Simplified

爭先恐後

Traditional

Example sentences

See 争先恐后 used in real sentences with pinyin and English translations.

  • 孩子们争先恐后地举手回答问题。

    hái zi men zhēng xiān kǒng hòu dì jǔ shǒu huí dá wèn tí。

    The children scrambled to raise their hands to answer, each trying to be first.

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Related words

先

xiān

early

后

hòu

empress

争

zhēng

to strive for

后面

hòu mian

the back

先生

xiān sheng

teacher

然后

rán hòu

then

以后

yǐ hòu

after

后悔

hòu huǐ

to regret

后来

hòu lái

afterwards

竞争

jìng zhēng

to compete

恐怕

kǒng pà

fear

首先

shǒu xiān

first (of all)

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Levels 7-9 vocabulary list

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