“Big bad wolf” in Chinese: how to say it and how to write it
Big bad wolf
The Big Bad Wolf in Chinese is 大灰狼, dà huī láng. Word for word: “big gray wolf” — that is what the wolf of fairy tales is called in Chinese. If you just mean a gray wolf, the animal, without the fairy tale, the short form is 灰狼, huī láng, and “wolf” on its own is 狼, láng.
How to write “gray wolf” in Chinese
- 大dàbig
- 灰huīgray; ash
- 狼lángwolf
Three characters, three words. 灰 means “ash”, which is where the color comes from: the full word for gray is 灰色, “the color of ash”. On the left of 狼 is the radical 犭 “animal” — you will find it in and too; the right part, 良, hints at the sound. You can write all three stroke by stroke in the writing worksheets.
How to pronounce 大灰狼
- 大灰狼dàhuīlángthe Big Bad Wolf (of fairy tales)
- 灰狼huīlánggray wolf (the animal)
Three syllables, three different tones. Dà is fourth: the voice drops, short and firm. Huī is first: high and level. Láng is second: the voice rises, as in a surprised “Yeah?”. Hui is short for h + uei, so it sounds close to “hway”, not “hoo-ee”; and the -ng at the end is the same sound as in “sing” — no hard “g” after it. Listen syllable by syllable: . How tones work is explained in “Chinese tones”.
When to say 大灰狼 and when 灰狼
大灰狼 is a fairy-tale character, the villain of children’s stories. It is the wolf in the Chinese version of Little Red Riding Hood, which is called 小红帽 (xiǎo hóng mào, “little red hat”). He also comes knocking on the little rabbits’ door in the children’s song 小兔子乖乖, and he turns up in cartoons. 大 here is not about size: it makes the wolf “the” wolf — the big, scary one, just like “big” in “Big Bad Wolf”.
In everyday speech 狼 is enough. A few phrases with it:
- 一只狼yìzhīlánga wolf, one wolf只 is the measure word for animals
- 狼来了！lángláile“The wolf is coming!”the Chinese title of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”
- 狐狸húlifoxthe second syllable is light, with no tone
“Fox” in Chinese is 狐狸: both characters have the same “animal” radical. In Chinese tales, as in ours, the fox is sly and the wolf is greedy and mean. Other animals are in the article “Animals in Chinese”, colors in “Colors in Chinese”, and another gray creature is on the page “Gray bird” in Chinese.
Frequently asked questions
How do you say “big bad wolf” in Chinese?
“Big bad wolf” in Chinese is 大灰狼, in pinyin dà huī láng.
How do you pronounce 大灰狼?
大灰狼 is read dà huī láng. The marks over the vowels are the tones: each syllable has its own melody, so listen to the recording on this page and repeat it.
How do you write “big bad wolf” in Chinese characters?
大灰狼 is 3 characters. What each one means and how the phrase is put together is explained on this page.
What does 大灰狼 mean?
大灰狼 (dà huī láng) means “big bad wolf”.
From the wolf to your first phrases
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