HSK 6
明明
míngmíng
obviously
Structure
Subject + 明明 + Verb/Adjective, (却/也/怎么...)
How it works
The adverb '明明' is used to emphasize that a fact is as clear as day and cannot be denied. It is often used to express surprise, dissatisfaction, or to correct someone else's wrong assumption or claim.
Examples
他明明知道这件事，却装作什么都不清楚。
Tā míngmíng zhīdào zhè jiàn shì, què zhuāngzuò shénme dōu bù qīngchǔ.
He obviously knows about this matter, yet he pretends to be completely unaware.
刚才明明是晴天，怎么突然下起雨来了？
Gāngcái míngmíng shì qíngtiān, zěnme tūrán xià qǐ yǔ lái le?
It was clearly a sunny day just now, how did it suddenly start raining?
这道题我明明做对了，老师却给我扣了分。
Zhè dào tí wǒ míngmíng zuò duì le, lǎoshī què gěi wǒ kòu le fēn.
I clearly did this problem correctly, but the teacher deducted points from me.
Common mistakes
Do not confuse '明明' with '明显'. '明显' is an adjective meaning 'obvious/apparent', while '明明' is an adverb used to emphasize the speaker's tone regarding an undeniable fact.
Tip
When using '明明', look for contrastive particles like '却' (què) or '怎么' (zěnme) in the second half of the sentence to highlight the contradiction.
More HSK 6 grammar
See 明明 in real Chinese
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