HSK 6 · Adjectives

坚韧 jiānrèn “tough” in Chinese

Traditional 堅韌

What 坚韧 means

  1. tough
  2. tenacious
  3. resilient
  4. tough and durable

How to say 坚韧

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale坚jiān1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale韧rèn4th tone, falling

坚韧 in a sentence

  1. 学好一门外语需要坚韧不拔的毅力。

    Xuéhǎo yì mén wàiyǔ xūyào jiānrèn bùbá de yìlì.

    Mastering a foreign language takes great perseverance.

    Sentence #1736070 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 猎人们用坚韧的绳网把野生动物捉住了。

    Lièrénmen yòng jiānrèn de shéngwǎng bǎ yěshēng dòngwù zhuōzhù le.

    The hunters caught the wild animal with a strong rope net.

    Sentence #363988 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 坚韧 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 坚 (jiān) drawn as one shape
坚jiānstrong

坚 is a single shape of 7 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

The character 韧 (rèn) with each of its parts in a different colour
韧rènannealed
  • 韦tanned leather · wéiMeaning part
  • 刃edged tool · rènSound part

韦 hints at the meaning (tanned leather); 刃 (rèn) hints at the sound. Compare it with rèn.

How to write 坚韧

坚 7 strokes · 韧 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 坚韧

Words with 坚

坚持jiānchí · to persevere with坚决jiānjué · firm坚强jiānqiáng · staunch坚定jiāndìng · firm坚固jiāngù · sturdy坚实jiānshí · solid坚硬jiānyìng · hard

More words: Adjectives

间接jiànjiē · indirect简陋jiǎnlòu · simple and crude艰难jiānnán · difficult健全jiànquán · sound尖锐jiānruì · sharp坚实jiānshí · solid简要jiǎnyào · brief坚硬jiānyìng · hard

FAQs

坚韧 (jiānrèn) means “tough” or “tenacious”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it jiānrèn: jiān with a 1st tone, then rèn 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, 坚韧 is written 堅韌. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type jianren with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 坚韧 from the suggestions. Typing jianren into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
坚韧 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.