HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Adjectives

难看 nánkàn “ugly” in Chinese

Traditional 難看

What 难看 means

  1. ugly
  2. unsightly
  3. bad-looking

How to say 难看

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale难nán2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale看kàn4th tone, falling

难看 in a sentence

  1. 她穿着一条很难看的裙子。

    Tā chuān zhe yì tiáo hěn nánkàn de qúnzi.

    She was wearing an ugly dress.

    Sentence #343425 from Tatoeba

  2. 她写的字很难看。

    Tā xiě de zì hěn nánkàn.

    Her handwriting is awful.

    Sentence #10320820 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  3. 我的房子又旧又难看。

    Wǒ de fángzi yòu jiù yòu nánkàn.

    My house is old and ugly.

    Sentence #6678446 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 难看 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.

The character 看 (kàn) with each of its parts in a different colour
看kànto see; to look at
  • 手hand · shǒu
  • 目eye · mù

Memory aidA hand 手 shading the eyes 目: to look.

How to write 难看

难 10 strokes · 看 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 难看

Words with 难

难nán · difficult难过nánguò · be grieved难题nántí · difficult problem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

Words with 看

看kàn · to look看见kànjiàn · to see看病kànbìng · to visit a doctor好看hǎokàn · good-looking看来kànlái · it seems看法kànfǎ · way of looking at a thing看望kànwàng · to visit看不起kànbuqǐ · to look down upon看待kàndài · to regard

More words: Adjectives

黄色huángsè · yellow有用yǒuyòng · useful常见chángjiàn · common常用chángyòng · commonly used难听nántīng · unpleasant to hear安全ānquán · safe棒bàng · great笨bèn · stupid

FAQs

难看 (nánkàn) means “ugly” or “unsightly”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it nánkàn: nán with a 2nd tone, then kàn 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, 难看 is written 難看. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type nankan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 难看 from the suggestions. Typing nankan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
难看 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 5 word list. It is not on the older 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.