HSK 3 · Time

突然 tūrán “sudden” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 突然 means

  1. sudden
  2. abrupt
  3. unexpected

How to say 突然

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale突tū1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale然rán2nd tone, rising

突然 in a sentence

  1. 为什么大家突然对我这么好？

    Wèishénme dàjiā tūrán duì wǒ zhème hǎo?

    Why is everyone being so nice to me all of a sudden?

    Sentence #8582841 from Tatoeba

  2. 灯突然灭了。

    Dēng tūrán miè le.

    The light suddenly went out.

    Sentence #363915 from Tatoeba

  3. 他的突然出现，让我们都感到惊讶。

    Tā de tūrán chūxiàn, ràng wǒmen dōu gǎndào jīngyà.

    His sudden appearance surprised us all.

    Sentence #479026 from Tatoeba

How 突然 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 突 (tū) with each of its parts in a different colour
突tūto dash
  • 穴cave · xué
  • 犬dog · quǎn
The character 然 (rán) with each of its parts in a different colour
然ráncorrect
  • 肰dog meat · ránSound part
  • 灬fire form of 火 · huǒMeaning part

灬 hints at the meaning (fire); 肰 (rán) hints at the sound. Compare it with rán.

Memory aidFire 灬 under meat 肰. Its first meaning was “to burn”, now written 燃 (rán).

How to write 突然

突 9 strokes · 然 12 strokes

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

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

Words related to 突然

Words with 突

突出tūchū · prominent冲突chōngtū · conflict突破tūpò · to break through

Words with 然

虽然suīrán · although当然dāngrán · of course然后ránhòu · then自然zìrán · nature既然jìrán · since竟然jìngrán · unexpectedly然而rán'ér · however仍然réngrán · still必然bìrán · inevitable不然bùrán · otherwise

More words: Time

马上mǎshàng · at once其实qíshí · actually其他qítā · other秋qiū · autumn夏xià · summer一般yìbān · general一定yídìng · surely一共yígòng · altogether

In the Chinese zodiac

狗gǒu · Year of the Dog

突 has 犬 (dog) under 穴 (a cave).

FAQs

突然 (tūrán) means “sudden” or “abrupt”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it tūrán: tū with a 1st tone, then rán with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 突然 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type turan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 突然 from the suggestions. Typing turan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
突然 is an HSK 3 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

A dictionary gives you the words. A native teacher shows you how to use them. Start with a free 30-minute intro call.

Book a free intro call

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.