HSK 5 · Adjectives

烂 làn “rotten” in Chinese

Traditional 爛

What 烂 means

  1. rotten
  2. mushy
  3. worn out
  4. soft
  5. well-cooked and soft
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to rot
  • to decompose
  • chaotic
  • messy

How to say 烂

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale烂làn4th tone, falling

烂 in a sentence

  1. 盒子里的一些苹果烂了。

    Hézi lǐ de yìxiē píngguǒ làn le.

    Some of the apples in the box are rotten.

    Sentence #677047 from Tatoeba

  2. 她在树枝上把自己的裙子扯烂了。

    Tā zài shùzhī shàng bǎ zìjǐ de qúnzi chělàn le.

    She tore her skirt on a branch.

    Sentence #9971441 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 烂 can also mean “lousy” or “terrible”

    我的法语很烂。

    Wǒ de Fǎyǔ hěn làn.

    My French is terrible.

    Sentence #776535 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 烂 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 烂 (làn) with each of its parts in a different colour
烂lànsoft; mushy
  • 火fire · huǒMeaning part
  • 兰orchid · lánSound part

火 hints at the meaning (fire); 兰 (lán) hints at the sound. Compare it with làn.

How to write 烂

烂 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 烂

Words with 烂

灿烂cànlàn · brilliant腐烂fǔlàn · to rot

More words: Adjectives

可靠kěkào · reliable可怕kěpà · awful刻苦kèkǔ · hardworking客观kèguān · objective老实lǎoshi · honest乐观lèguān · optimistic了不起liǎobuqǐ · amazing良好liánghǎo · good

FAQs

烂 (làn) means “rotten” or “mushy”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it làn: làn 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, 烂 is written 爛. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type lan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 烂 from the suggestions. Typing lan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
烂 is an HSK 5 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.