Pitiful in Chinese: 可怜 (kě lián)

kě lián

pitiful

HSK 3.0 Level 5Traditional: 可憐2 example sentences

Definitions

  1. 1pitiful
  2. 2pathetic
  3. 3to have pity on

Stroke order

Watch how to write 可怜 stroke by stroke.

Zhuyin

This word’s pronunciation in Bopomofo.

Learn how to read Zhuyin

ㄎㄜˇ

/ k/ eˇ/ third tone

ㄌㄧㄢˊ

lián

/ l/ i/ anˊ/ second tone

Simplified & traditional

可怜

Simplified

可憐

Traditional

Example sentences

See 可怜 used in real sentences with pinyin and English translations.

  • 可怜的猫。

    kě lián de māo。

    Poor cat.

  • 可怜死了!

    kě lián sǐ le!

    How pitiful!

Spotted a mistake?

Related words

Appears in

Learn 可怜 with spaced repetition

Add 可怜 (kě lián) to your review queue and the FSRS algorithm will schedule it exactly when you're about to forget — then meet it again in a short AI-generated story written at your level.

Start learning free

No credit card required · Free tier included