HSK 4 · Adjectives

困难 kùnnan “difficult” in Chinese

Traditional 困難

What 困难 means

  1. difficult
  2. challenging
  3. straitened circumstances
  4. difficult situation

How to say 困难

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale困kùn4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own难nanneutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

困难 in a sentence

  1. 他帮助我克服了困难。

    Tā bāngzhù wǒ kèfú le kùnnan.

    He helped me overcome the difficulties.

    Sentence #819792 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 你必须做出困难的选择。

    Nǐ bìxū zuòchū kùnnan de xuǎnzé.

    You have to make a difficult choice.

    Sentence #9990198 from Tatoeba

  3. 每个人都遇到过困难。

    Měi ge rén dōu yùdào guo kùnnan.

    Everyone has had difficulties.

    Sentence #1990186 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 困难 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 困 (kùn) with each of its parts in a different colour
困kùnto trap
  • 囗enclosure · wéi
  • 木tree · mù
The character 难 (nán) with each of its parts in a different colour
难nándifficultlight in 困难
  • 又again · yòu
  • 隹short-tailed bird · zhuī

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

How to write 困难

困 7 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.

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

Words related to 困难

Words with 困

困kùn · to trap贫困pínkùn · poor

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…)艰难jiānnán · difficult

More words: Adjectives

假jiǎ · false精彩jīngcǎi · wonderful科学kēxué · science空kōng · empty懒lǎn · lazy冷静lěngjìng · calm礼貌lǐmào · courtesy厉害lìhai · impressive

FAQs

困难 (kùnnan) means “difficult” or “challenging”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it kùnnan: kùn with a 4th tone, then nan with a neutral 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, 困难 is written 困難. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type kunnan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 困难 from the suggestions. Typing kunnan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
困难 is an HSK 4 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.