妨 (fáng): to hinder, (in the negative or interrogative) (no) harm, (what) harm

妨 (fáng) is a Chinese character meaning “to hinder.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 女 (semantic) and 方 (phonetic). It ranks #1854 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 妨 woman. Its radical form 女 (woman) appears in many related characters such as 女 (nǚ, woman), 奶 (nǎi, grandmother, milk), 她 (tā, she).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to hinder
  2. (in the negative or interrogative) (no) harm
  3. (what) harm

Etymology & Origin

妨

pictophoneticwoman

Decomposition: ⿰女方 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 妨

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
妨碍verbfáng àito hinder6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
不妨adverbbù fángthere is no harm in
无妨verbwú fángno harm (in doing it)
何妨adverbhé fángwhat harm is there in (doing sth)
妨害verbfáng hàito jeopardize
但说无妨dàn shuō wú fángthere is no harm in saying what one thinks (idiom)
妨害公务fáng hài gōng wù(law) obstructing government administration
妨功害能fáng gōng hài néngto constrain and limit successful, capable people
妨碍球fáng ài qiú(golf) stymie
9
Total compounds
56
As first character
44
As last character
0
As middle character

妨 appears in 9 compound words: 56 as the first character, 44 as the last, and 0 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 妨 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

碍ài
0.6762,324 co-occurrences
害hài
0.5113,157 co-occurrences
嫌xián
0.446386 co-occurrences
涉shè
0.409454 co-occurrences
染rǎn
0.396394 co-occurrences
罪zuì
0.357292 co-occurrences
传chuán
0.336386 co-occurrences
串chuàn
0.33446 co-occurrences
不bù
0.3341,870 co-occurrences
何hé
0.332380 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

妨功害能fáng gōng hài néngHSK 6+

to constrain and limit successful, capable people

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

她是一位坚强的妨性,独自抚养两个孩子。

tā shì yī wèi jiān qiáng de fáng xìng , dú zì fǔ yǎng liǎng gě hái zǐ .

She is a strong woman who has raised two children on her own.

少数派Aug 2026

即使看过 TV 版,也不妨重温一遍。

jí shǐ kàn guò T V bǎn , yě bù fáng chóng wēn yī biàn .

Even if you've already seen the TV version, it's worth watching it again.

少数派Aug 2026

如果你正发愁自己的信息检索从何下手,不妨看看这篇文章。

rú guǒ nǐ zhèng fā chóu zì jǐ de xìn xī jiǎn suǒ cóng hé xià shǒu , bù fáng kàn kàn zhè piān wén zhāng .

If you're wondering where to start with information retrieval, you might want to check out this article.

WorldjournalApr 2026

尹锡悦8案缠身 妨害拘留案二审遭加重刑期将再上诉

尹 xī yuè 8 àn chán shēn fáng hài jū liú àn èr shěn zāo jiā chóng xíng qī jiāng zài shàng sù

Yoon Suk-yeol Faces Eight Charges; Sentence Increased on Appeal in Obstruction of Arrest Case; Plans to Appeal Again

StheadlineMar 2026

...予还押犯“提供线报”申减刑 两男女认串谋妨碍司法公正罪

. . . yú hái yā fàn tí gōng xiàn bào shēn jiǎn xíng liǎng nán nǚ rèn chuàn móu fáng ài sī fǎ gōng zhèng zuì

...Man and Woman Plead Guilty to Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice for "Providing Tips" to a Detained Suspect in Exchange for a Sentence Reduction

EttodayFeb 2026

...照男改车炸街遭拦 不满挨罚+扣车飙国骂!妨害公务送办

. . . zhào nán gǎi chē zhà jiē zāo lán bù mǎn āi fá kòu chē biāo guó mà ! fáng hài gōng wù sòng bàn

... The man was stopped for changing his car to bomb the street and was fined for dissatisfaction + detained the car and scolded the country! It obstructs the delivery of official business

Tatoeba

群众妨碍了警员执行任务。

Qúnzhòng fáng'ài le jǐng yuán zhíxíng rènwu.

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

Tatoeba

噪音妨碍了我的学习。

Zàoyīn fáng'ài le wǒ de xuéxí.

Noises interfered with my studying.

Tatoeba

你不妨告诉我一切。

Nǐ bù fáng gàosu wǒ yīqiè.

You may as well tell me all about it.

Tatoeba

罢工妨碍了国家经济。

Bàgōng fáng'ài le guójiā jīngjì.

The strike affected the nation's economy.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 女 (woman) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced fáng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 妨 (fáng) mean in Chinese?
妨 (fáng) primarily means "to hinder." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1854 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 妨 and 旁?
妨 (fáng) and 旁 (páng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 女 vs 方 (same 方 component).
How many strokes does 妨 have?
妨 is written with 7 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 妨?
The radical associated with 妨 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 妨?
妨 is composed of: 女 (semantic), 方 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女方 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 妨?
Common words with 妨 include: 妨碍 (fáng ài, "to hinder"); 不妨 (bù fáng, "there is no harm in"); 无妨 (wú fáng, "no harm (in doing it)"); 何妨 (hé fáng, "what harm is there in (doing sth)"); 妨害 (fáng hài, "to jeopardize"). There are over 9 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 妨 (fáng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation fáng: 放 (to put, to release), 房 (house), 防 (to protect), 访 ((bound form) to seek by inquiry), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 妨 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 妨 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 妨 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.