难 (nán): difficult (to...), problem, difficulty

难 (nán) is a Chinese character meaning “difficult (to...).” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 又 (structural) and 隹 (structural). It ranks #295 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 难 a hand 又 trying to grasp at a bird 隹. Its radical form 隹 (short-tailed bird) appears in many related characters such as 集 (jí, to gather), 雄 (xióng, male), 雀 (què, (bound form) small bird).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. difficult (to...)
  2. problem
  3. difficulty

Etymology & Origin

难

ideographicA hand 又 trying to grasp at a bird 隹

Decomposition: ⿰又隹 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 难

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
难道adverbnán dàodon't tell me ...4
困难adjective/nounkùn nandifficult4
难过adjectivenán guòto feel sad3
难以verbnán yǐhard to (predict, imagine etc)5
艰难adjectivejiān nándifficult6
灾难nounzāi nàndisaster6
难受adjectivenán shòuto feel unwell4
难忘verbnán wàngunforgettable4
难度nounnán dùdegree of difficulty5
为难adjective/verbwéi nánto feel embarrassed or awkward6
难得adjectivenán déseldom5
难题nounnán tídifficult problem3
难免adjectivenán miǎnhard to avoid6
难看adjectivenán kànugly3
难听adjectivenán tīngunpleasant to hear3
难点nounnán diǎndifficulty6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
难以置信phrasenán yǐ zhì xìn(idiom) hard to believe
难堪verbnán kānhard to take
难怪verbnán guài(it's) no wonder (that...)
难关nounnán guāndifficulty
避难所nounbì nàn suǒa refuge
难民nounnàn mínrefugee
苦难nounkǔ nànsuffering
难为情adjectivenán wéi qíngembarrassed
遇难verbyù nànto perish
避难verbbì nànto take refuge
难闻nounnán wénunpleasant smell
难以忍受nán yǐ rěn shòuhard to endure
磨难nounmó nàna torment
难以启齿phrasenán yǐ qǐ chǐto be too embarrassed to mention sth (idiom)
千载难逢phraseqiān zǎi nán féngextremely rare (idiom)
107
Total compounds
44
As first character
49
As last character
7
As middle character

难 appears in 107 compound words: 44 as the first character, 49 as the last, and 7 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 难 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

困kùn
0.61322,808 co-occurrences
灾zāi
0.6098,006 co-occurrences
艰jiān
0.5864,456 co-occurrences
遇yù
0.58115,160 co-occurrences
虽suī
0.512122 co-occurrences
避bì
0.5126,602 co-occurrences
趣qù
0.502118 co-occurrences
忘wàng
0.4451,756 co-occurrences
很hěn
0.43911,487 co-occurrences
苦kǔ
0.4372,304 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (55)

百般刁难bǎibān diāonànHSK 7+

to create innumerable obstacles; to make things difficult for; to create obstructions of every description

phrase
插翅难飞chāchìnánfēiHSK 5+

unable to escape

phrase
寸步难行cùnbùnánxíngHSK 6+

cannot walk a step; difficult to move forward; difficult to make headway

phrase
寸步难移cùn bù nán yíHSK 6+

see 寸步難行|寸步难行

phrase
多难兴邦duōnànxīngbāngHSK 7+

the numerous disasters may bring the people of a country together to revive the country

phrase
多灾多难duōzāiduōnànHSK 6+

with many disasters

phrase
法网难逃fǎ wǎng nán táoHSK 6+

it is hard to escape the net of justice (idiom)

phrase
覆水难收fùshuǐnánshōuHSK 6+

there's no point crying over spilt milk

phrase
更仆难数gēng pú nán shǔHSK 7+

too many to count; very many; innumerable

phrase
孤掌难鸣gūzhǎngnánmíngHSK 7+

It is hard to succeed without support.

phrase
好梦难成hǎo mèng nán chéngHSK 4+

a beautiful dream is hard to realize (idiom)

phrase
患难之交huànnànzhījiāoHSK 6+

a rock (a supportive friend); a friend through thick and thin

phrase

Showing 12 of 55 idioms containing 难.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

面对困难时,我们要保持乐观的心态,相信自己能克服。

Miàn duì kùnnán shí, wǒmen yào bǎochí lèguān de xīntài, xiāngxìn zìjǐ néng kèfú.

When facing difficulties, we must maintain an optimistic attitude and believe we can overcome them.

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

业界倡上调基本免税额一成 预算案料难大派糖 吁多照顾打工仔

yè jiè chàng shàng diào jī běn miǎn shuì é yī chéng yù suàn àn liào nán dà pài táng xū duō zhào gù dǎ gōng zǐ

The industry advocates raising the basic tax allowance by 10%, and the budget is expected to be difficult to distribute sugar and call for more care for workers

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

和股票与储蓄帐户不同 出售实物白银很难吗

hé gǔ piào yǔ chǔ xù zhàng hù bù tóng chū shòu shí wù bái yín hěn nán ma

And unlike stocks and savings accounts, is it hard to sell physical silver?

百度新闻Feb 2026

...控人春节前被拘,这家基金公司“问题股东”难题待解

. . . kòng rén chūn jié qián bèi jū , zhè jiā jī jīn gōng sī wèn tí gǔ dōng nán tí dāi xiè

... Controller detained before the Spring Festival, the fund company's "problem shareholders" problem to be solved

百度新闻Feb 2026

米兰冬奥|“热爱可敌万难”,徐梦桃成功卫冕,五届奥..

mǐ lán dōng ào rè ài kě dí mò nán , xú mèng táo chéng gōng wèi 冕 , wǔ jiè ào . .

Milan Winter Olympics | "Love can conquer all difficulties", Xu Mengtao successfully defended her title, five-time o...

百度新闻Feb 2026

泽连斯基表示遭袭击越多越难达成协议

zé lián sī jī biǎo shì zāo xí jī yuè duō yuè nán dá chéng xié yì

Zelenskyy stated that the more attacks there are, the harder it becomes to reach an agreement.

Tatoeba

英文比日文更难吗?

Yīngwén bǐ Rìwén gèng nán ma?

Is English more difficult than Japanese?

Tatoeba

谁解决了这个难题?

Shéi jiějué le zhège nántí?

Who solved the hard problem?

Tatoeba

你难以理解女人和小孩子对你说的话吗?

Nǐ nányǐlǐjiě nǚrén hé xiǎoháizi duì nǐ shuō dehuà ma?

Do you have difficulty understanding what women or small children say to you?

Tatoeba

难道他可以买一把刀,而我就不行了?

Nándào tā kěyǐ mǎi yī bǎ dāo, ér wǒ jiù bùxíngle?

If it's okay for him to buy a knife, then why on earth can't I?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced nán

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 难 (nán) mean in Chinese?
难 (nán) primarily means "difficult (to...)." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #295 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 难 have?
难 is written with 10 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 难?
The radical associated with 难 is 隹 (short-tailed bird). This radical appears in many characters related to short-tailed bird.
What are the components of 难?
难 is composed of: 又 (structural), 隹 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰又隹 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 难?
Common words with 难 include: 难道 (nán dào, "don't tell me ..."); 困难 (kùn nan, "difficult"); 难以置信 (nán yǐ zhì xìn, "(idiom) hard to believe"); 难过 (nán guò, "to feel sad"); 难以 (nán yǐ, "hard to (predict, imagine etc)"). There are over 107 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 难 (nán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation nán: 南 (south), 男 (male). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 难 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 难 and the traditional form is 難.

Practice writing 难 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.