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稚嫩 (zhì nèn) — young and tender (of appearance, age); puerile, immature (of ideas, behavior)

Definition

Describes someone who looks or acts very young — both in appearance and in immature ideas. Compared with 幼稚, it leans more on the 'young-looking' sense; 幼稚 stresses childish behavior or thinking.

adjective
young and tender (of appearance, age)puerileimmature (of ideas, behavior)

Examples

  • ，稚嫩。
    Tā suī rán yǐ jīng èr shí suì le, dàn kàn qǐ lái hái shì hěn zhì nèn.
    She looks very young and tender even though she's already twenty.
  • 稚嫩，。
    Tā de xiǎng fǎ tài zhì nèn le, hái xū yào duō xué xí.
    His ideas are too puerile; he still needs to learn more.
  • 稚嫩。
    Zhè zhǒng zhì nèn de shēng yīn yì tīng jiù zhī dào shì gè hái zi.
    This kind of young and tender voice is obviously a child's.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

稚zhìyoung
嫩nèntender

稚 (young) and 嫩 (tender) combine to mean young and tender.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
禾禾hérice
Sound part声符shēngfú
屖
屖xī稚zhì
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

稚 is built from 禾 (rice) plus 屖, which supplies the sound.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 嫩 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9

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