HSK 3 · Adjectives

难 nán “difficult” in Chinese

Traditional 難

What 难 means

  1. difficult
  2. difficult (to…)
  3. problem
  4. difficulty
  5. not good

How to say 难

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

难 in a sentence

  1. 用筷子吃饭难吗？

    Yòng kuàizi chīfàn nán ma?

    Is eating with chopsticks difficult?

    Sentence #5911762 from Tatoeba

  2. 这是个很难解决的问题。

    Zhè shì ge hěn nán jiějué de wèntí.

    This is a very difficult problem to solve.

    Sentence #343800 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 中文比其他外语难。

    Zhōngwén bǐ qítā wàiyǔ nán.

    Chinese is harder than other foreign languages.

    Sentence #10192345 from Tatoeba

How 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 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 难

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.

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

Words related to 难

Words with 难

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…)艰难jiānnán · difficult

More words: Adjectives

蓝lán · blue老lǎo · old绿lǜ · green满意mǎnyì · satisfied年轻niánqīng · young胖pàng · fat奇怪qíguài · strange清楚qīngchu · clear

FAQs

难 (nán) means “difficult” or “difficult (to…)”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it nán: 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, 难 is written 難. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type nan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 难 from the suggestions. Typing nan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
难 is an HSK 3 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.