How to say “difficult” in Chinese
difficult
“Difficult” in Chinese is 难, nán: the meaning, a recording of how it sounds, the characters stroke by stroke and examples.
How to pronounce it
难 is read nán. The tone is part of the word: with another melody you get another word, or just a jumble of sounds.
How to write it
难看 is “hard to look at”, that is, “ugly”.
Strokes go in order: top to bottom and left to right, horizontal before vertical. Tap a character to open its page, with the strokes shown large and the words it appears in. To train your hand, print a handwriting sheet for “难”.
Examples
Sentences from the course lessons with 难. Tap the sound icon to listen.
- 你为什么这么难过？nǐwèishénmezhèmenánguòWhy are you so sad?
- 我心里很难过。wǒxīnlihěnnánguòI feel really sad inside.
- 学汉语不难。xuéHànyǔbùnánLearning Chinese isn't hard.
- 数学比历史难shùxuébǐlìshǐnánMath is harder than history.
- 学历史难不难？xuélìshǐnánbunánIs studying history hard?
- 这么难的题我都做完了！zhèmenándetíwǒdōuzuòwánleSuch hard problems — and I solved them all!
More characters by topic — happiness, luck, strength, nature — on the page “Chinese characters with meanings”.
More words from the lesson “Hard or easy?”
Look up another word in the Chinese–English dictionary: in English, in pinyin or in characters.
Frequently asked questions
How do you say “difficult” in Chinese?
“Difficult” in Chinese is 难, pinyin nán.
What does 难 mean?
难 (nán) means “difficult”.
How do you write 难?
难 is 1 character. The stroke order of each one is shown step by step on this page.
How do you pronounce 难?
难 is read nán. Tones: nán — second tone. The page has a native speaker recording.
“difficult” in the lesson “Hard or easy?”
This word is from the topic “Studying” of HSK 3. In the lesson you hear it in a dialogue, build a sentence with it and say it out loud. Start for free, no sign-up needed.
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