(ài): to hinder

(ài) is a Chinese character meaning “to hinder.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1428 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, stone. Its radical form (stone) appears in many related characters such as (què, certain, true), (wǎn, bowl), (pèng, to touch, to bump).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to hinder

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticstone

Decomposition: ⿰石㝵 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
noun/verbzhàng àibarrier6
verbfáng àito hinder6
verb/nounzǔ àito obstruct6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
ài shìto be in the way
zhàng ài wùobstacle
ài yǎnto be an irksome presence (i.e. sth or sb one wishes were not there)
wú àiwithout inconvenience
ài miàn zi(not do sth) for fear of offending sb
ài nán cóng mìngdifficult to obey orders (idiom)
xìng tóng yī xìng zhàng àigender identity disorder
xìng bié rèn tóng zhàng àigender identity disorder (GID)
fēn liè qíng gǎn xìng zhàng àischizoaffective disorder
chuāng shāng hòu yìng jī zhàng àipost-traumatic stress disorder
biān yuán xìng rén gé zhàng àiborderline personality disorder (BPD)
yǒu àito hinder
dà ài(usually used in the negative) major issue
shēn xīn zhàng àidisability
ài yúto be constrained by
37
Total compounds
27
As first character
59
As last character
14
As middle character

appears in 37 compound words: 27 as the first character, 59 as the last, and 14 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

zhàng
0.79266,452 co-occurrences
fáng
0.6816,942 co-occurrences
0.63120,375 co-occurrences
0.52016,691 co-occurrences
0.4973,630 co-occurrences
qiǎo
0.4572,436 co-occurrences
shī
0.4326,786 co-occurrences
jué
0.4191,446 co-occurrences
shè
0.4107,500 co-occurrences
mián
0.410786 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

àishǒu'àijiǎoHSK 6+

to be in the way; to be a hindrance

phrase
shēnxīn zhàng'àiHSK 6+

disability

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个障物挡住了去路,我们需要绕道而行。

Zhè gè zhàng'ài wù dǎng zhù le qùlù, wǒmen xūyào ràodào ér xíng.

This obstacle is blocking the way; we need to take a detour.

NewsFeb 2026

...停电动车首次登记税宽减非一刀切 有信心无政策目标

. . . tíng diàn dòng chē shǒu cì dēng jì shuì kuān jiǎn fēi yī dāo qiē yǒu xìn xīn wú ài zhèng cè mù biāo

... The first registration tax concession for parking electric vehicles is not one-size-fits-all, and I am confident that it will not hinder the policy goal

NewsFeb 2026

...网》家中长辈21项警讯 网红医:恐认知障前兆

. . . wǎng jiā zhōng cháng bèi xiàng jǐng xùn wǎng hóng yī kǒng rèn zhī zhàng ài qián zhào

... Net" 21 warning signs for elders in the family Internet celebrity doctor: fear of precursors to cognitive impairment

NewsFeb 2026

2月24日星座运势/狮子克服阻 水瓶提升专业

yuè rì xīng zuò yùn shì shī zǐ kè fú zǔ ài shuǐ píng tí shēng zhuān yè

February 24 horoscope/Leo overcomes obstacles Aquarius improves professionalism

NewsFeb 2026

摩通:保荐人新规无优质企上市

mó tōng bǎo jiàn rén xīn guī wú ài yōu zhì qǐ shàng shì

JPMorgan: New Sponsor Rules Won't Hinder Quality Companies from Going Public

百度新闻Feb 2026

首金来了!苏翊鸣生日当天获男子坡面障技巧金牌 曾..

shǒu jīn lái le ! sū 翊 míng shēng rì dāng tiān huò nán zǐ pō miàn zhàng ài jì qiǎo jīn pái céng . .

Here comes the first gold! Su Yiming won the gold medal in men's steeplechase on his birthday, and had...

Tatoeba

群众妨了警员执行任务。

Qúnzhòng fáng'ài le jǐng yuán zhíxíng rènwu.

The crowd obstructed the police in the discharge of their duties.

Tatoeba

罢工妨了国家经济。

Bàgōng fáng'ài le guójiā jīngjì.

The strike affected the nation's economy.

Tatoeba

战争结束之后贸易障被解除。

Zhànzhēng jiéshù zhīhòu màoyì zhàng'ài bèi jiěchú.

Trade barriers were lifted after the war ended.

Tatoeba

噪音妨了我的学习。

Zàoyīn fáng'ài le wǒ de xuéxí.

Noises interfered with my studying.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced ài

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 碍 (ài) mean in Chinese?
碍 (ài) primarily means "to hinder." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1428 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 碍 have?
碍 is written with 13 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 碍?
The radical associated with 碍 is 石 (stone). This radical appears in many characters related to stone.
What are the components of 碍?
碍 is composed of: 石 (semantic), 㝵 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰石㝵 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 碍?
Common words with 碍 include: 障碍 (zhàng ài, "barrier"); 妨碍 (fáng ài, "to hinder"); 阻碍 (zǔ ài, "to obstruct"); 碍事 (ài shì, "to be in the way"); 障碍物 (zhàng ài wù, "obstacle"). There are over 37 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 碍 (ài)?
Several characters share the pronunciation ài: 哎 (hey!), 哀 (Ai (c. 2000 BC), sixth of legendary Flame Emperors 炎帝 descended from Shennong 神農|神农 Farmer God, also known as Li 釐|厘), 唉 (interjection or grunt of agreement or recognition (e.g. yes, it's me!)), 挨 (in order), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 碍 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 碍 and the traditional form is 礙.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.