坏女孩
huài nǚhái
In Chinese, the phrase for bad girl is 坏女孩 (huài nǚhái).
坏女孩 refers to a girl or woman who behaves poorly or breaks the rules. While it can be used literally to describe a child behaving badly, in modern pop culture contexts, it can also carry a flirtatious or 'rebellious' connotation similar to English.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase is composed of 坏 (huài), meaning 'bad' or 'broken' and 女孩 (nǚhái), meaning 'girl'.
How does it change in a sentence?
The phrase is a noun phrase and does not change its form based on whether it is the subject or the object of a sentence.
How do you pronounce it?
huài nǚhái
Did you know?
- While 坏女孩 (huài nǚhái) is a direct translation, a more colloquial way to describe a 'bad girl' or a troublemaker is to call her a 坏蛋 (huài dàn), which literally means 'bad egg'.
- The character 坏 (huài) is not just used for 'bad' behavior, but also to describe 'broken' or 'spoiled' food and faulty machinery.
- Using the phrase 坏女孩 (huài nǚhái) for an adult woman can make your speech sound like a dubbed Western film rather than natural Chinese.
Examples in context
- 她是一个不好的女孩，从不尊重他人。She is a bad girl who never respects others.
- 她是个坏女生，总是闯祸。She is a bad girl who always causes trouble.
- 她是一个坏女孩。Tā shì yīgè huài nǚhái.She is a bad girl.
- 那个坏女孩逃跑了。Nàge huài nǚhái táopǎo le.That bad girl ran away.
Example conversation
Two friends are talking about a classmate who broke the rules.
- 浩然 Haoran你听说梓涵逃课了吗？Nǐ tīngshuō Zǐhán táokè le ma?Did you hear that Zihan skipped class?
- 梓涵 Zihan是的，她真是个坏女孩。Shì de, tā zhēnshì gè huài nǚhái.Yes, she is really a bad girl.
- 浩然 Haoran老师会非常生气。Lǎoshī huì fēicháng shēngqì.The teacher will be very angry.
- 梓涵 Zihan她肯定会被惩罚的。Tā kěndìng huì bèi chéngfá de.She will definitely be punished.
