How to say “catastrophe” in Chinese
catastrophe, misfortune
“Catastrophe” in Chinese is 灾难, zāi nàn: the meaning, a recording of how it sounds, the characters stroke by stroke and examples.
How to pronounce it
灾难 is read zāi nàn: 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
On top, 宀 “roof”; under it, 火 “fire”: a house on fire.
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 “灾难”.
Examples
Sentences from the course lessons with 灾难. Tap the sound icon to listen.
- 这场地震给当地带来了巨大的灾难。zhèchǎngdìzhèngěidāngdìdàiláilejùdàdezāinànThis earthquake brought a huge catastrophe to the area.
More words from the lesson “Flood”
Look up another word in the Chinese–English dictionary: in English, in pinyin or in characters.
Frequently asked questions
How do you say “catastrophe” in Chinese?
“Catastrophe” in Chinese is 灾难, pinyin zāinàn.
What does 灾难 mean?
灾难 (zāinàn) means “catastrophe, misfortune”.
How do you write 灾难?
灾难 is 2 characters: 灾 (zāi) — disaster; 难 (nán) — difficult. The stroke order of each one is shown step by step on this page.
How do you pronounce 灾难?
灾难 is read zāinàn. Tones: zāi — first tone, nàn — fourth tone. The page has a native speaker recording.
“catastrophe” in the lesson “Flood”
This word is from the topic “Energy, ecology, disasters” of HSK 6. 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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