HSK 6 · Emotions

尴尬 gāngà “awkward” in Chinese

Traditional 尷尬

What 尴尬 means

  1. awkward
  2. embarrassed

How to say 尴尬

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale尴gān1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale尬gà4th tone, falling

尴尬 in a sentence

  1. 看见我，她很尴尬。

    Kànjiàn wǒ, tā hěn gāngà.

    Seeing me, she was embarrassed.

    Sentence #791648 from Tatoeba

  2. 他的话让我很尴尬。

    Tā de huà ràng wǒ hěn gāngà.

    His words embarrassed me.

    Sentence #343816 from Tatoeba

  3. 这件事弄得大家都比较尴尬。

    Zhè jiàn shì nòng de dàjiā dōu bǐjiào gāngà.

    The incident made everyone feel rather awkward.

    Sentence #6395809 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 尴尬 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 尴 (gān) with each of its parts in a different colour
尴gān
  • 尢lame · wāngMeaning part
  • 监to supervise · jiānSound part

尢 hints at the meaning (lame); 监 (jiān) hints at the sound. Compare it with gān.

The character 尬 (gà) with each of its parts in a different colour
尬gàembarrassing; awkward
  • 尢lame · wāngMeaning part
  • 介agent · jièSound part

尢 hints at the meaning (lame); 介 (jiè) hints at the sound. Compare it with gà.

How to write 尴尬

尴 13 strokes · 尬 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 尴尬

More words: Emotions & Attitudes

反感fǎngǎn · to dislike废寝忘食fèiqǐnwàngshí · so absorbed one forgets to eat and sleep愤怒fènnù · anger服气fúqì · to be convinced干劲gànjìn · drive感慨gǎnkǎi · to sigh with emotion隔阂géhé · estrangement共鸣gòngmíng · resonance

FAQs

尴尬 (gāngà) means “awkward” or “embarrassed”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it gāngà: gān with a 1st tone, then gà with a 4th 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, 尴尬 is written 尷尬. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ganga with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 尴尬 from the suggestions. Typing ganga into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
尴尬 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.