HSK 6 · Adjectives

艰难 jiānnán “difficult” in Chinese

Traditional 艱難

What 艰难 means

  1. difficult
  2. hard
  3. arduous

How to say 艰难

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale艰jiān1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale难nán2nd tone, rising

艰难 in a sentence

  1. 这名老妇艰难地爬上楼梯。

    Zhè míng lǎofù jiānnán de pá shàng lóutī.

    The old woman climbed the stairs with difficulty.

    Sentence #13071574 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 这个月我过得有点艰难。

    Zhè ge yuè wǒ guò de yǒudiǎn jiānnán.

    This month has been a bit tough for me.

    Sentence #8730053 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 养大一个宝宝是一项艰难的工作。

    Yǎngdà yí ge bǎobao shì yí xiàng jiānnán de gōngzuò.

    Raising a baby is hard work.

    Sentence #787565 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 艰难 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 艰 (jiān) with each of its parts in a different colour
艰jiāndifficult
  • 又again · yòu
  • 艮stopping · gěnMeaning part

艮 hints at the meaning (stopping); 堇 (jǐn) hints at the sound. Compare it with jiān.

The character 难 (nán) with each of its parts in a different colour
难nándifficult
  • 又again · yòu
  • 隹short-tailed bird · zhuī

Memory aidPicture a hand 又 trying to catch a bird 隹: difficult.

How to write 艰难

艰 8 strokes · 难 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 艰难

Words with 艰

艰巨jiānjù · arduous艰苦jiānkǔ · difficult

Words with 难

难nán · difficult难过nánguò · be grieved难题nántí · difficult problem难看nánkàn · ugly难听nántīng · unpleasant to hear困难kùnnan · difficult难受nánshòu · to feel unwell难道nándào · don’t tell me …难免nánmiǎn · hard to avoid难怪nánguài · (it’s) no wonder (that…)

More words: Adjectives

坚固jiāngù · sturdy僵硬jiāngyìng · stiff间接jiànjiē · indirect简陋jiǎnlòu · simple and crude健全jiànquán · sound坚韧jiānrèn · tough尖锐jiānruì · sharp坚实jiānshí · solid

FAQs

艰难 (jiānnán) means “difficult” or “hard”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it jiānnán: jiān with a 1st tone, then nán 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, 艰难 is written 艱難. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type jiannan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 艰难 from the suggestions. Typing jiannan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
艰难 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

A dictionary gives you the words. A native teacher shows you how to use them. Start with a free 30-minute intro call.

Book a free intro call

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.