Meaning
difficult (to...); problem; difficulty; difficult; not good; disaster
Chinese: 困难；读 nàn 时指灾难。
Hear the Four Tones
The same syllable “nan” becomes a different word in each tone. 难 is the 2nd tone. Tap any tone to hear a native voice and see its pitch shape.
Stroke Order
Tap Animate to watch the strokes in order, or Practice to trace it yourself.
Common Words
- 难过nán guòto feel sad; to feel unwell; (of life) to be difficult
- 难受nán shòuto feel unwell; to suffer pain; to be difficult to bear
- 难题nán tídifficult problem
- 难看nán kànugly; unsightly
- 困难kùn nandifficult; challenging; straitened circumstances; difficult situation
Example Sentence
这座山很难爬。Zhè zuò shān hěn nán pá.This mountain is hard to climb.
这Zhèthis座zuòseat山shānmountain很hěnvery难nándifficult (to...)爬páto crawl。
Go deeper
Where this character comes from
Simplified from 難 (with 隹, a bird). Read nán it means ‘difficult, hard; hard to…’ (困难, 难过); read nàn it means ‘a disaster, calamity; to blame’ (灾难, 难民).
A way to remember it
nán = difficult (困难); nàn = a disaster (灾难).