How to say “ugly” in Chinese
ugly
“Ugly” in Chinese is 难看, nán kàn: the meaning, a recording of how it sounds, the characters stroke by stroke.
How to pronounce it
难看 is read nán kàn: 2 syllables. 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”.
A hand 手 above an eye 目.
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 “难看”.
More words from the lesson “Even tastier”
Look up another word in the Chinese–English dictionary: in English, in pinyin or in characters.
Frequently asked questions
How do you say “ugly” in Chinese?
“Ugly” in Chinese is 难看, pinyin nánkàn.
What does 难看 mean?
难看 (nánkàn) means “ugly”.
How do you write 难看?
难看 is 2 characters: 难 (nán) — difficult; 看 (kàn) — look, watch. The stroke order of each one is shown step by step on this page.
How do you pronounce 难看?
难看 is read nánkàn. Tones: nán — second tone, kàn — fourth tone. The page has a native speaker recording.
“ugly” in the lesson “Even tastier”
This word is from the topic “Food and dining” 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.
Start for free