HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Adjectives

难听 nántīng “unpleasant to hear” in Chinese

Traditional 難聽

What 难听 means

  1. unpleasant to hear
  2. (of words) offensive
  3. coarse
  4. vulgar
  5. offensive
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • shameful

How to say 难听

  • 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 first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale听tīng1st tone, high and level

难听 in a sentence

  1. 钢琴走调了，音色很难听。

    Gāngqín zǒudiào le, yīnsè hěn nántīng.

    The piano is out of tune and sounds awful.

    Sentence #340148 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  2. 比尔生气了并用难听的话骂迪克。

    Bǐ'ěr shēngqì le bìng yòng nántīng de huà mà Díkè.

    Bill got angry and called Dick nasty names.

    Sentence #798232 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 难听 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 听 (tīng) with each of its parts in a different colour
听tīngto listen to; to hear
  • 口mouth · kǒu
  • 斤axe · jīn

Memory aidMouth 口 with 斤 (jīn) for the sound. The full form 聽 has an ear 耳 in it: to listen.

How to write 难听

难 10 strokes · 听 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 难听

Words with 难

难nán · difficult难过nánguò · be grieved难题nántí · difficult problem难看nánkàn · ugly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 听

听tīng · to listen听见tīngjiàn · to hear好听hǎotīng · pleasant to hear听说tīngshuō · to hear (it said that)打听dǎting · to ask about倾听qīngtīng · to listen attentively

More words: Adjectives

有用yǒuyòng · useful常见chángjiàn · common常用chángyòng · commonly used难看nánkàn · ugly安全ānquán · safe棒bàng · great笨bèn · stupid标准biāozhǔn · standard

FAQs

难听 (nántīng) means “unpleasant to hear” or “(of words) offensive”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it nántīng: nán with a 2nd tone, then tīng with a 1st 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, 难听 is written 難聽. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type nanting with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 难听 from the suggestions. Typing nanting into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
难听 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.