Boost Your Mandarin Right Now || 11 New Ways to Say “I Understand”!

Quick answer: The most common way to say ‘I understand’ in Chinese is 我明白 (wǒ míngbái) or 我懂了 (wǒ dǒng le) in casual speech.

For ‘I can follow what I’m hearing’, use 听得懂 (tīngdedǒng); for a deeper ‘I understand the reasoning’, use 理解 (lǐjiě); and to signal factual familiarity, use 了解 (liǎojiě).

This guide covers 11 ways to say ‘I understand’ in Chinese, mapped to HSK levels, with the negatives (听不懂, 看不懂, 不明白) and polite softeners you actually need.

If you’ve learnt even a little bit of the language already, we’re willing to bet you do. 

But we’re also guessing that you don’t know all the ways to say it.

Because believe it or not, there are many ways to express different types of understanding in Chinese. 

And the more Chinese you learn, the more you discover. 

Confused? Worried? Thinking of giving up? Don’t! 

In this post, we’ll look at the most common ways of saying I understand in Chinese, and how to use them. 

Phrase #1 | 听得懂 Tīngdedǒng — HSK 3

Phrase #2 | 明白 Míngbái — HSK 3

Phrase #3 | 了解 Liǎojiě — HSK 4

Phrase #4 | 理解 Lǐjiě — HSK 5

Phrase #5 | 清楚 Qīngchǔ — HSK 3

Phrase #6 | 理会 Lǐhuì — Advanced

Phrase #7 | 领会 Lǐnghuì — Advanced

Phrase #8 | 谅解 Liàngjiě — Advanced

Phrase #9 | 领略 Lǐnglüè — Advanced

Phrase #10 | 会心 Huìxīn — Advanced

Phrase #11 | 知道 Zhīdào — HSK 1

I Don’t Understand in Chinese | The Honest Phrases

Dialogue | Putting It Together

I Understand in Chinese || BONUS Words

I Understand in Chinese || FAQs

(HSK levels are based on the HSK 3.0 framework from Chinese Testing International. ‘Advanced’ phrases fall outside the standardised HSK word list but appear in authentic speech and literature.)

#1 听得懂 Tīngdedǒng — HSK 3

If you haven’t already learnt 听得懂, it won’t be long before you do.

This foreigner favourite is likely to be one of the first phrases you learn when you start studying Chinese, alongside the essential Mandarin communication phrases every beginner needs. 

It’s an extremely useful phrase that can get you out of many an awkward situation when you have no idea what’s going on. 

听得懂 follows a grammar pattern called the resultative verb compound (also known as a potential complement): verb + 得/不 + result. This is one of the most productive patterns in Mandarin — once you know it, you’ll recognise it everywhere.

The structure tells you whether the action can produce the result (得) or cannot (不). So 听得懂 = ‘can hear and understand’; 听不懂 = ‘cannot hear and understand.’

For a deeper look at how these structures work, our Chinese sentence structure guide breaks it all down.

Let’s break that down: 

• 听 (tīng) means ‘to hear’
• 懂 (dǒng) means ‘to understand’

TIP💡 懂 as a standalone word. You don’t always need the full 听得懂 structure. In relaxed conversation, 懂 on its own is completely natural:

• 你懂吗？(nǐ dǒng ma) — Do you understand? / You get it?
• 懂了！(dǒng le) — Got it! / I understand now!
• 不懂 (bù dǒng) — Don’t understand

懂 vs 明白: Both mean ‘to understand’, but 懂 feels more instinctive and colloquial, think of it as the gut-level ‘I get it.’ 明白 carries a slightly more deliberate sense of having worked something out. In practice, native speakers swap between them freely, but if you’re learning your first handful of phrases, 懂 is the one you’ll hear most on the street.

And 得 is a structural participle that comes after a verb to indicate possibility.  

Too grammatical?

Take a look at the literal translation: ‘I hear and can understand’. 

In other words, I understand.

So, what if you don’t understand? 

Easy! You simply need to replace the 得 with 不 (no) to say ‘I don’t understand’: 听不懂.

You might have noticed that this phrase only refers to things you’ve heard, rather than read. 

Listening vs reading comprehension // same pattern, different verb

To say you don’t understand something you’ve read, swap 听 (tīng — to listen) for 看 (kàn — to look/read):

• 看得懂 (kàndedǒng) — I can read and understand this
• 看不懂 (kànbudǒng) — I can’t understand what I’m reading

This is useful whenever you’re faced with a menu, a sign, or a WeChat message and need to explain yourself. The grammar pattern is identical, only the input verb changes.

These structures work in exactly the same way and convey the same level of understanding, which is either everything or nothing, depending on whether you’ve used 得 or 不. 

Many Chinese learners use the phrase 听不懂 as a catch-all for saying “I don’t understand” without realising that it implies they don’t understand anything the speaker is saying at all, rather than not getting a word or concept. 

This can bring a conversation to an abrupt halt or, in some cases, come across as a bit rude. 

Psst… To avoid any other social faux pas, check out our guide to Losing Face in China

So, the key takeaway here is to only use 听不懂 when you really don’t understand anything that’s being said.

If you do get the gist of the conversation or want to soften your words, you can do so by adding 太 to say: 我听不太懂 (wǒ tīng bú tài dǒng).

#2 明白 Míngbái — HSK 3

This is another common way of saying ‘to understand’ that you’ll likely learn early on in your studies. 

It literally means “to be able to understand or grasp something” and is formed of the following words: 

• 明 (míng) — bright or clear
• 白 (bái) — white, plain or clear

If you’re curious about how Chinese characters are built from smaller meaningful units like these, our guide to how Chinese characters work is a great next read. 💡

明白 is a slightly more formal way of saying I understand than 听得懂, but it can be used in exactly the same contexts: to express a lack of understanding of a spoken or written message.

However, unlike 听不懂, 不明白 doesn’t imply a complete lack of understanding, and it doesn’t follow the 得/不 structure. 

To say you do or don’t understand, you can simply say: 

• 我明白 
• 我不明白

Got it? Great.

Here’s where things get slightly more complicated. But don’t worry, we’ll make it as simple as possible. 

#3 了解 Liǎojiě — HSK 4

了解 means to fully understand someone or something. 

It’s often used in spoken Chinese to express a complete understanding of a situation, a concept, a subject or a person.

Its meaning is similar to the English expression, ‘Got it’. For example: 

我了解情况 – I understand the situation.

You can also use this word to say that you understand a person. 

FOR EXAMPLE || 我和她是好朋友，我很了解她 – we’re good friends, I really understand her.

To change this into the negative, you simply need to add a ‘不’ in front of the verb, 了解.

我才刚认识他，不太了解他 – I just met him, I don’t know him that well.

A lot of learners get tripped up by the difference between 了解 and 理解. Here’s a quick side-by-side before we look at 理解 in detail:

Now we’ve got that straight, let’s look at 理解 properly.

#4 理解 Lǐjiě — HSK 5

Okay, so while 理解 sounds and looks very similar to the previous character, its meaning is significantly different. 

理解 is used to express a deeper level of understanding than 了解, one that stretches beyond superficial facts. 

The first character, 理 is the same one found in 道理, meaning ‘logic’ or ‘sense’. 

This offers a clue as to what the meaning of this character is: that you don’t just understand something, you understand the logic behind it.

So, while you can 了解 a person, you can’t 理解 them. But you could 理解 something they did. For example:  

FOR EXAMPLE || 我理解她为什么要辞职 – I understand why she wants to resign.

This sentence implies that the speaker knows more about her deeper reason for wanting to resign than the simple fact that she wants to resign.  

You can use 理解 in situations where you want to emphasise your understanding of a situation or when you want to show empathy. 

Now, ready for the curveball? 

Although the meanings are fundamentally quite different, you may come across sentences where both 理解 and 了解 are grammatically correct. 

理解 or 了解?

There are some instances where the two characters are interchangeable. 

我理解他辞职的原因 – I understand his reasons for quitting

我了解他为什么辞职了 – I get why he quit

As you can see, despite both sentences being grammatically correct, the meanings are slightly different depending on the character. 

#5 清楚 Qīngchǔ — HSK 3

While 清楚 also means ‘to understand’, it emphasises that you’re clear on something.

You might hear it in a sentence like this: 

Person A – 你听清楚了吗？

Person B – 听清楚了 / 听不清楚 

This verb suggests that you have no trouble understanding something, you clearly get it. 

Or, in its negative form, you don’t get something clearly.  

You can use 清楚 to refer to situations, explanations or principles. Let’s look at some more examples: 

我不清楚这个问题 – I’m not clear about this problem

我把问题搞清楚了 – I have a clear understanding of the problem

While you can use 清楚 in both spoken and written Chinese, it’s unlikely you’d use it in daily conversation to say that you don’t understand what someone is saying. 

Just a quick heads up…

The words that follow are more advanced vocab that you won’t need to know until quite far along in your Chinese learning journey (level 7-9 on the new HSK syllabus).  

We’ll cover them anyway because it’s always good to be prepared. But don’t worry about learning or using these verbs just yet. 

#6 理会 Lǐhuì — Advanced

理会 has a few meanings, one of which is ‘to understand’, it also has the implication of not caring about something. 

It’s much more formal than the words we’ve already looked at, so while you might need to know it to pass an HSK exam or read a newspaper, you’re unlikely to use it in spoken Chinese.

Here are some examples: 

这个词有点难理会 – this word is a little difficult to understand.

我说了半天，她也没有理会 – I spoke for a long time but she still didn’t care.

Have you ever had any communication mishaps in Chinese? Let us know your stories in the comments!

#7 领会 Lǐnghuì — Advanced

领会 translates to ‘to grasp’ or ‘to comprehend’ in English. 

It can be used to express an understanding of a concept or the deeper meaning of something, but not someone. 

Again, as a higher-level word, it’s mostly used in more formal contexts or written Chinese. 

Here are some examples: 

我还没有领会你的意思 – I still haven’t grasped your meaning.

阅读课文，要仔细领会每句话的含义 – When reading a text, you have to carefully comprehend the meaning of each sentence.

#8 谅解 Liàngjiě — Advanced

Quick question before we look at this next character… 

Can you spot the pattern between some of these words? 

If you’ve already started learning Chinese, you probably know that different words are formed from various combinations of the same characters. 

So, once you’ve learnt a handful of them, it’s easier to guess what the meaning of a new one might be. 

In this case, 解 is the same character used in 理解 and 了解, which on its own, means ‘solution’. 

Here, it’s paired with 谅, meaning ‘to forgive’. 

So, can you guess what 谅解 might mean?

Yep, to understand or, more accurately, to make allowances for. 

You might use 谅解 to say: 

我能谅解你有你的困难 – I understand you have difficulties.

谢谢你的谅解 – Thank you for understanding. 

#9 领略 Lǐnglüè — Advanced

Stay with us, we’ve almost reached the end! 

Second to last on our list is 领略, which loosely translates to an appreciation or an impression of. 

You can use it to talk about things such as scenery, food or feelings in the same way you’d use it in English.

FOR EXAMPLE || 我终于领略到云南的美丽风景 – I finally appreciate the beautiful scenery of Yunnan.

#10 会心 Huìxīn — Advanced

And finally in this group, we have 会心. 

This translates to ‘knowing’ and can be used to refer to things like a knowing glance or a knowing smile. 

You’re unlikely to use 会心 in a spoken context, but just in case you want to impress your Chinese friends, here are a couple of sentences you can try: 

会心一笑 ／ 会心的微笑 – a knowing smile.

#11 知道 Zhīdào — HSK 1

知道 is probably the first ‘understanding’ word you’ll encounter in any Mandarin classroom, and it’s HSK 1, so it’s essential from day one.

It translates literally as ‘to know’ and is the everyday go-to for saying you know or understand a fact.

• 知 (zhī) = to know
• 道 (dào) = road, way, path (here used to mean ‘the way of things’)

Put together: you know the way something is, you know.

FOR EXAMPLE ||

我知道了 (wǒ zhīdào le) — I see / Got it / I now know

你知道吗？(nǐ zhīdào ma) — Do you know?

我不知道 (wǒ bù zhīdào) — I don’t know

TIP💡 我知道了 with the particle 了 is especially natural in conversation, it signals that understanding has just arrived, like ‘Ah, I see!’ in English. You’ll hear it constantly in Beijing and Shanghai.

How is 知道 different from 明白? 知道 is about factual knowledge (‘I know that…’), while 明白 is about grasping meaning or reasoning (‘I understand why…’). Native speakers use both, often in the same breath.

I Don’t Understand in Chinese || The Honest Phrases You Need

Knowing how to say you don’t understand is just as important as saying you do, maybe more so.

Here are the three most useful negative forms, plus two polite softeners that keep the conversation going:

TIP💡 Don’t overuse 听不懂. Saying 听不懂 implies you’ve understood nothing, zero. It can bring a conversation to a full stop. If you caught the general idea but missed a detail, try one of these softer alternatives instead:

• 我没听清楚 (wǒ méi tīng qīngchǔ) — I didn’t hear clearly
• 请再说一次 (qǐng zài shuō yī cì) — Could you say that again, please?
• 我听不太懂 (wǒ tīng bú tài dǒng) — I don’t quite understand

These phrases keep the conversation alive and come across as polite rather than a dead end.

Putting It Together || A Quick Conversation

Here’s how several of these phrases might appear in a real exchange. This kind of dialogue comes up constantly in LTL’s Beijing classrooms:

Teacher: 你理解这个语法规则吗？
(nǐ lǐjiě zhège yǔfǎ guīzé ma?)
‘Do you understand this grammar rule?’

Student: 老师，我听得懂，但是我不太明白为什么。
(lǎoshī, wǒ tīngdedǒng, dànshì wǒ bú tài míngbái wèishénme.)
‘Teacher, I can follow what you’re saying, but I don’t quite understand why.’

Teacher: 没问题。你了解这个结构吗？
(méi wèntí. nǐ liǎojiě zhège jiégòu ma?)
‘No problem. Are you familiar with this structure?’

Student: 知道了！现在我明白了。
(zhīdào le! xiànzài wǒ míngbái le.)
‘Got it! Now I understand.’

Notice how 听得懂 covers the listening comprehension (‘I can hear and process it’), 明白 covers the deeper reasoning (‘I now truly get it’), and 了解 checks familiarity with a concept. These aren’t interchangeable, and using the right one will immediately mark you out as someone who really knows their Mandarin. 🤔

Want to practise all of this with a native-speaking teacher? Whether you’re in Beijing, Shanghai, or joining us online via Flexi Classes, LTL’s Mandarin programs are built around exactly this kind of real, contextual language, not textbook drills.

👉 Find your perfect Mandarin program

There you have it! 11 different ways to say I understand in Chinese. 

We hope you can see that while these characters might all mean to understand, they have vastly different meanings.

Before we wrap up…

We mentioned earlier that characters combine to form other words that relate in some way to their meaning, and the characters we’ve looked at today are no different. 

Here are some extra words that are formed using some of these characters. See the pattern?

误会 Wùhuì – misunderstanding

懂行 Dǒngháng – to know the ropes 

解释 Jiěshì – to explain 

解开 Jiěkāi – to solve

解析 Jiěxī – to analyze;  examine

谅察 Liàng chá – a formal way of asking for forgiveness

Don’t forget to check out our Chinese Grammar Bank to keep on top of your grammar skills! We’ve got tonnes of useful content on there to help you level up in no time.

I Understand in Chinese || FAQs

Want more from LTL?

If you wish to hear more from LTL Language School why not join our mailing list? We give plenty of handy information on learning Chinese, useful apps to learn the language and everything going on at our LTL schools!

Sign up below and become part of our ever-growing community!

⭐ Download our free ebook, your starter pack of essential Mandarin learning resources!

BONUS || Want to study Chinese with us in China? Why not check out our group and individual classes here