Mandarin: Parts of the body

As well as talking about yourself in terms of your name and age in Mandarin, it can be useful to be able to talk about body parts.

Different parts of the body in Mandarin

Did you know?

Mandarin does not make any difference between singular and plural, ie you do not add an ‘s’ or change the word form as in ‘mouse’ and ‘mice’.

This means that ‘脚 jiǎo’ means both ‘foot’ and ‘feet’.

Talking about parts of the body in Mandarin

You can combine these body parts with the Mandarin phrase 这是 Zhè shì (This is), for example:

这是我的鼻子 Zhè shì wǒ de bí zi - This is my nose

More useful, though, would be to add the Mandarin word '疼 téng' (hurt).

For example:

• 我头疼 Wǒ tóu téng - My head hurts

• 我肚子疼 Wǒ dù zi téng - My stomach hurts

• 我眼睛疼 Wǒ yǎn jīng téng - My eyes hurt

Describing parts of the body in Mandarin

When describing parts of the body in Mandarin, you need to know some common adjectives.

So, to say ‘My hair is long’ in Mandarin, you would say:

我的头发长 Wǒ de tóu fa cháng - My hair is long

You could also use the word 很 hěn (very) in Mandarin before the body part for emphasis.

Hair and eye colour in Mandarin

Some examples for using colours to describe your eyes and hair in Mandarin include:

• 我的眼睛是蓝色的 Wǒ de yǎn jīng shì lán sè de - My eyes are blue

• 我的头发是红色的 Wǒ de tóu fa shì hóng sè de - My hair is red

To learn more about the specifics of colours in Mandarin, click here.