HSK 6 · Verbs

挣扎 zhēngzhá “to struggle” in Chinese

Traditional 掙扎

What 挣扎 means

  1. to struggle

How to say 挣扎

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale挣zhēng1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale扎zhá2nd tone, rising

挣扎 in a sentence

  1. 我挣扎着挤出地铁。

    Wǒ zhēngzhá zhe jǐchū dìtiě.

    I struggled to squeeze my way off the metro.

    Sentence #350057 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 汤姆挣扎着站了起来。

    Tāngmǔ zhēngzhá zhe zhàn le qǐlai.

    Tom struggled to his feet.

    Sentence #13887453 from Tatoeba

  3. 那只受伤的小鸟在草地上尽力挣扎。

    Nà zhī shòushāng de xiǎoniǎo zài cǎodì shàng jìnlì zhēngzhá.

    The injured little bird struggled with all its might on the grass.

    Sentence #14027276 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 挣扎 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 挣 (zhèng) with each of its parts in a different colour
挣zhēngto struggle to get free
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒu
  • 争to dispute · zhēng
The character 扎 (zhā) with each of its parts in a different colour
扎zháto prick
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒu
  • 乚second (cyclical) form of 乙 · yǐ

How to write 挣扎

挣 9 strokes · 扎 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 挣扎

Words with 挣

挣zhèng · to earn (money)

Words with 扎

扎zhā · to prick扎实zhāshi · solid驻扎zhùzhā · to be stationed

More words: Common Verbs

遮挡zhēdǎng · to block折磨zhémo · to torment争夺zhēngduó · to fight over征服zhēngfú · to conquer折腾zhēteng · to toss and turn支撑zhīchēng · to support指定zhǐdìng · to appoint支配zhīpèi · to control

FAQs

挣扎 (zhēngzhá) means “to struggle”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it zhēngzhá: zhēng with a 1st tone, then zhá with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 挣扎 is written 掙扎. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zhengzha with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 挣扎 from the suggestions. Typing zhengzha into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
挣扎 is an HSK 6 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.