Meaning of 难
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- difficult (to...)
- problem
- difficulty
- difficult
- not good
- disaster
- distress
- to scold
How to use 难
难 is a very common adjective meaning hard or difficult. It often goes before a verb to mean hard to do something, as in 难看 (nánkàn, ugly) and 难听 (nántīng, unpleasant to hear). Example: 中文不太难。(Zhōngwén bú tài nán.) Chinese is not too difficult.
难 has 又 (yòu, again) on the left and 隹 (zhuī, a short-tailed bird) on the right. Picture trying again and again to catch a bird. It is hard, so 难 means difficult.
Common mistake: Learners often say 很难过 when they mean something was hard. 难过 (nánguò) means to feel sad, so for a hard task say 很难 (hěn nán). Also do not mix up the tone: the meaning difficult is second tone nán, while fourth tone nàn means disaster, as in 灾难 (zāinàn).
难 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.
难 nán · difficult · 10 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 难.
| 难过 | nánguò | to feel sad; to feel unwell |
| 难受 | nánshòu | to feel unwell; to suffer pain |
| 难看 | nánkàn | ugly; unsightly |
| 难题 | nántí | difficult problem |
| 难听 | nántīng | unpleasant to hear; coarse |
| 难道 | nándào | don't tell me ...; could it be that...? |
| 困难 | kùnnan | difficult; challenging |
| 难度 | nándù | degree of difficulty |
| 难免 | nánmiǎn | hard to avoid; difficult to escape from |
| 艰难 | jiānnán | difficult; arduous; hard |
| 灾难 | zāinàn | disaster; catastrophe |
| 难以 | nányǐ | hard to (predict, imagine etc) |
Questions about 难
What does 难 mean?
难 (nán) means "difficult (to...); problem" and is used as a adjective.
How do you write 难?
难 is made of 1 character: 难 (10 strokes). That is 10 strokes in total.
Is 难 an HSK word?
Yes. 难 is on the HSK 1 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How is 难 written in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, 难 is written 難.
How do I say something is easy, the opposite of 难?
Use 容易 (róngyì) or 简单 (jiǎndān). For example, 这个问题很容易 (zhège wèntí hěn róngyì) means this question is easy.
What does 难道 mean at the start of a question?
难道 (nándào) turns a sentence into a rhetorical question, like could it be that or don't tell me. For example, 难道你不知道吗？(Nándào nǐ bù zhīdào ma?) means surely you know, don't you?