HSK 6 · Ideas

苦尽甘来 kǔjìngānlái “after hardship comes happiness” in Chinese

Traditional 苦盡甘來

What 苦尽甘来 means

  1. after hardship comes happiness
  2. bitterness finishes, sweetness begins (idiom)
  3. the hard times are over, the good times just beginning

How to say 苦尽甘来

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale苦kǔ3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale尽jìn4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale甘gān1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale来lái2nd tone, rising

苦尽甘来 in a sentence

  1. 苦尽甘来。

    Kǔjìngānlái.

    After hardship comes happiness.

    Sentence #806666 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 苦尽甘来 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 苦 (kǔ) with each of its parts in a different colour
苦kǔbitter
  • 艹grass form of 艸 · cǎoMeaning part
  • 古old · gǔSound part

艹 hints at the meaning (grass); 古 (gǔ) hints at the sound. Compare it with kǔ.

The character 尽 (jǐn) with each of its parts in a different colour
尽jìnto use up
  • 尺part of the character
  • ⺀ice form of 冫 · bīng
The character 甘 (gān) with each of its parts in a different colour
甘gānsweet; pleasant
  • 卄twenty · niàn
  • 二two · èr
The character 来 (lái) with each of its parts in a different colour
来láito come
  • 未part of the character
  • 丷eight form of 八 · bā

Memory aidDrawn from a stalk of wheat. It was borrowed early on for “to come”.

How to write 苦尽甘来

苦 8 strokes · 尽 6 strokes · 甘 5 strokes · 来 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 苦尽甘来

Words with 苦

苦kǔ · bitter辛苦xīnkǔ · exhausting艰苦jiānkǔ · difficult刻苦kèkǔ · hardworking痛苦tòngkǔ · pain吃苦chīkǔ · to endure hardship苦涩kǔsè · bitter

Words with 尽

尽管jǐnguǎn · despite尽力jìnlì · to strive one’s hardest尽快jǐnkuài · as soon as possible尽量jǐnliàng · as much as possible竭尽全力jiéjìnquánlì · to do one’s utmost无穷无尽wúqióngwújìn · endless

Words with 甘

心甘情愿xīngānqíngyuàn · willingly

Words with 来

来lái · to come出来chūlái · to come out过来guòlái · to come over回来huílai · to return进来jìnlái · to come in上来shànglái · to come up下来xiàlai · to come down后来hòulái · afterwards起来qǐlai · beginning or continuing an action带来dàilái · to bring (about)

More words: Ideas & Concepts

局限júxiàn · to limit考验kǎoyàn · to test空白kòngbái · blank框架kuàngjià · frame来历láilì · origin来源láiyuán · source良心liángxīn · conscience立场lìchǎng · position

FAQs

苦尽甘来 (kǔjìngānlái) means “after hardship comes happiness” or “bitterness finishes, sweetness begins (idiom)”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it kǔjìngānlái: kǔ with a 3rd tone, then jìn with a 4th tone, then gān with a 1st tone, then lái 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, 苦尽甘来 is written 苦盡甘來. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type kujinganlai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 苦尽甘来 from the suggestions. Typing kujinganlai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
苦尽甘来 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.