Instinct in Chinese
instinct · HSK 6
本能
- 本 root
- 能 can
保护孩子是母亲的本能。 Protecting her child is a mother's instinct.
More words with 本 or 能
How do you say instinct in Chinese?
Instinct in Chinese is 本能 (běn néng).
Which word should I use?
Start with the first one: it is the easiest on the HSK list. The others say it too, often in a more formal way or for a narrower sense; each one’s page has real sentences that show how it is used.
Where do these words come from?
Our own dictionary’s meanings for the official HSK word list. A word is shown for an English word when that is one of its first meanings; the easiest word whose first meaning it is comes first.
More free tools
Greetings: hello, good morning and goodbye. Measure words: the classifier for any noun. Tone practice: say a word and see your tones. Read any Mandarin: point at a word for its meaning.
Meanings from our own dictionary. Chinese often has more than one way to say a word.