Meaning of 开玩笑
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- to play a joke; to make fun of; to joke
How to use 开玩笑
开玩笑 is a verb-object phrase meaning to joke or to tease someone. You can put the person in the middle with 跟 or 和, as in 跟他开玩笑, or use 开 + someone's + 玩笑. Example: 我是开玩笑的，别生气。(Wǒ shì kāi wánxiào de, bié shēngqì.) I was just joking, don't be mad.
Think of it as 开 (kāi, to open) plus 玩笑 (wánxiào, play and laugh). You open up some play and laughter, which means you make a joke.
Common mistake: Because it is verb plus object, learners wrongly say 开玩笑他 for "joke with him". The correct forms are 跟他开玩笑 or 开他的玩笑. Also, 笑 (xiào) is fourth tone, but in casual speech 玩笑 often sounds like wánxiao with a light final syllable.
开玩笑 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
开 kāi · to open · 4 strokes
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玩 wán · to play with · 8 strokes
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笑 xiào · to laugh · 10 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 开玩笑.
| 打开 | dǎkāi | to open; to show (a ticket) |
| 开车 | kāichē | to drive a car (or train etc); (slang) to post sexual content online; to make a sexual jok |
| 开会 | kāihuì | to hold or attend a meeting |
| 玩儿 | wánr | to play; to have fun |
| 好玩儿 | hǎowánr | erhua variant of 好玩[hao3 wan2] |
| 离开 | líkāi | to depart; to leave |
| 开心 | kāixīn | to feel happy; to rejoice |
| 走开 | zǒukāi | to leave; to walk away; to beat it; to move aside |
| 分开 | fēnkāi | to separate; to part |
| 笑话 | xiàohua | joke; jest; to laugh at; to mock |
| 开学 | kāixué | (of a student) to start school; (of a semester) to begin |
| 开机 | kāijī | to start an engine; to boot up (a computer) |
Questions about 开玩笑
What does 开玩笑 mean?
开玩笑 (kāi wánxiào) means "to play a joke; to make fun of; to joke".
How do you write 开玩笑?
开玩笑 is made of 3 characters: 开 (4 strokes), 玩 (8 strokes), 笑 (10 strokes). That is 22 strokes in total.
Is 开玩笑 an HSK word?
Yes. 开玩笑 is on the HSK 1 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How is 开玩笑 written in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, 开玩笑 is written 開玩笑.
How do you say "Are you kidding me?" in Chinese?
A common way is 你开玩笑吧？(Nǐ kāi wánxiào ba?) You can also say 你在开玩笑吗？(Nǐ zài kāi wánxiào ma?) Both show surprise or disbelief.
Can I split 开玩笑 with other words in between?
Yes. Since 开 is the verb and 玩笑 is the object, you can insert words, as in 开个玩笑 (kāi ge wánxiào, make a joke) or 开了一个玩笑 (kāi le yí ge wánxiào, made a joke). 别开玩笑了 (bié kāi wánxiào le) means stop joking.