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Mythic Mandarin

宁可 (nìng kě): meaning and stroke order

宁可 (nìng kě) means preferably, one would prefer to...(or not to...), would rather, (would) be better to.

宁可

Simplified
宁可
Traditional
寧可
Pinyin
nìng kě

Stroke order of 宁可

宁

  • zhù to store; to stand
  • nìng old variant of 寧|宁[ning4]
  • Níng abbr. for Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region 寧夏回族自治區|宁夏回族自治区[Ning2 xia4 Hui2 zu2 Zi4 zhi4 qu1]; abbr. for Nanjing 南京[Nan2 jing1]
  • 5 strokes
  • Simplified form: 㝉

Stroke by stroke

可

  • kě (prefix) can; may; able to; -able; to approve; to permit
  • kè used in 可汗[ke4 han2]
  • 5 strokes

Stroke by stroke

Meaning of 宁可

  1. nìng kě Traditional 寧可
    • preferably
    • one would prefer to...(or not to...)
    • would rather
    • (would) be better to
    • (to pick) the lesser of two evils

Radicals of the characters

宁
Radical 宀 (Kangxi radical 40) · 5 strokes · 宀 on top, 丁 below
可
Radical 口 (Kangxi radical 30) · 5 strokes · built from 丁 and 口

Radicals and stroke counts: Unicode Unihan database. Structure: the shapes a character is written with (BabelStone IDS), not necessarily parts that carry meaning or sound.

宁可 in our stories

Preview version — Chinese review in progress.

  • 挪威人礼貌而安静，公交车上宁可站着，也不愿意坐到陌生人旁边。

    Nuówēi rén lǐmào ér ānjìng gōngjiāochē shàng nìngkě zhàn zhe yě bù yuànyì zuò dào mòshēngrén pángbiān

    Norwegians were polite and quiet; on the bus they would rather stand than sit next to a stranger.

    From the story Two homes HSK 7–9 · Level 7

  • 惠子做过魏国的宰相，喜欢讲逻辑，什么事都要问个为什么；庄子却宁可当一只在泥里自由爬的乌龟，也不愿意做官。

    Huìzǐ zuò guò Wèiguó de zǎixiàng xǐhuan jiǎng luójí shénme shì dōu yào wèn gè wèishénme Zhuāngzǐ què nìngkě dāng yì zhī zài ní lǐ zìyóu pá de wūguī yě bú yuànyì zuòguān

    Huizi had been chancellor of Wei and loved logic; he had to ask why about everything. Zhuangzi, by contrast, would rather be a tortoise crawling freely in the mud than become an official.

    From the story The happiness of fish HSK 7–9 · Level 8

Stories using 宁可

Dictionary data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Stroke data: Hanzi Writer data, derived from Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License). Animation: Hanzi Writer (MIT licence). Radicals and stroke counts: Unicode Unihan (Unicode License v3).