Dictionary › 可怜

可怜

kě lián

Old HSK 4 HSK 3.0 level 6 2-character word Traditional 可憐

可怜 (kě lián) means "pitiful". It is an HSK 3.0 level 6 word, and was HSK 4 in the old six-level list.

What 可怜 means

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

The characters in 可怜

• 可kě(prefix) can; may; able to; -able; to approve; to permit; to suit
• 怜liánto pity

Example sentences

• 可怜!
  How unfortunate!
• 可怜的猫。
  Poor cat.
• 你真可怜。
  It must suck to be you.
• 可怜死了！
  How pitiful!
• 可怜可怜我吧！
  Have pity on me.
• 放过那个可怜人。
  Leave the poor guy alone.

Words starting with 可怜

• 可怜巴巴kě lián bā bāpathetic; pitiful
• 可怜兮兮kě lián xī xīmiserable; wretched
• 可怜虫kě lián chóngpitiful creature; wretch
• 可怜见kě lián jiàn(colloquial) pitiable; to have pity on sb

Words containing 可怜

• 楚楚可怜chǔ chǔ kě lián(idiom) pitiable; sweet, innocent and vulnerable

Where 可怜 is taught

In the GraphChinese course it is part of Negative emotions & reactions (HSK 4), each one a topic in the dependency graph of HSK 1–6 that opens only once its prerequisites are solid.

Go deeper

• Every HSK 4 word, with the rest of its level.
• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read kě lián correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.