HSK 5 · Function Words

偶然 ǒurán “incidentally” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 偶然 means

  1. incidentally
  2. occasional
  3. occasionally
  4. by chance
  5. randomly

How to say 偶然

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale偶ǒu3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale然rán2nd tone, rising

偶然 in a sentence

  1. 我们偶然碰到了她。

    Wǒmen ǒurán pèngdào le tā.

    We ran into her by chance.

    Sentence #332910 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我们偶然乘上了同一辆列车。

    Wǒmen ǒurán chéng shàng le tóng yí liàng lièchē.

    We happened to catch the same train.

    Sentence #2031261 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 那个发现纯属偶然。

    Nà ge fāxiàn chúnshǔ ǒurán.

    That discovery was purely accidental.

    Sentence #332427 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 偶然 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 偶 (ǒu) with each of its parts in a different colour
偶ǒuaccidental
  • 亻person form of 人 · rénMeaning part
  • 禺district · yúSound part

亻 hints at the meaning (person); 禺 (yú) hints at the sound. Compare it with ǒu.

The character 然 (rán) with each of its parts in a different colour
然ráncorrect
  • 肰dog meat · ránSound part
  • 灬fire form of 火 · huǒMeaning part

灬 hints at the meaning (fire); 肰 (rán) hints at the sound. Compare it with rán.

Memory aidFire 灬 under meat 肰. Its first meaning was “to burn”, now written 燃 (rán).

How to write 偶然

偶 11 strokes · 然 12 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

偶然 (ǒurán) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 偶然 (ǒurán). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 偶然

Words with 偶

Words with 然

More words: Function Words & Grammar

FAQs

偶然 (ǒurán) means “incidentally” or “occasional”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it ǒurán: ǒu with a 3rd tone, then rán with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 偶然 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ouran with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 偶然 from the suggestions. Typing ouran into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
偶然 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.