How to Write 孬 (nāo) — Meaning “bad / weak”

Think of a person who is "not good" at anything — they are 孬 (nāo). Visualize a big red cross (不, no) crossing out a smiling face (好, good) to mean "bad quality." This image helps link the top and bottom parts to the meaning of weakness or worthlessness.

The top part 不 must be written slightly narrower so the bottom 好 fits properly. A common mistake is making the 不 too wide, which makes the whole character unbalanced. Also, the left side of 好 (女) and right side (子) should be even in size; do not make 子 too small.

孬 (nāo) means "bad/weak" and has 不 on top of 好. 孟 (mèng) means "first month" or is a surname; its top part is 子 (child) and bottom is 皿 (dish), so it looks similar but is unrelated. 孢 (bāo) means "spore" and has 子 on the left with 包 on the right. Unlike 孬, both 孟 and 孢 have no negative meaning.

孬 is used in informal or dialectal speech, especially in northern China, to describe something of poor quality or a cowardly person. Common words include 孬种 (nāo zhǒng, coward/weakling) and 孬好 (nāo hǎo, quality/good or bad). It is not part of the HSK list and is less common in formal writing.

Common words containing 孬 include: 孬好 (nāo hǎo) — quality / good or bad; 孬种 (nāo zhǒng) — coward / weakling; 孬人 (nāo rén) — bad person / coward.