ZHIZHI 知止 · LEARN CHINESE DAILY
难
difficult
nán
10 strokes · 又 (hand) + 隹 (short-tailed bird) · HSK 3
Where 难 comes from
A hand 又 trying to hold a bird 隹 — good luck with that. The bird that won't be caught became everything that won't be done easily: difficult.
难 in Chinese culture
难 nán: 困难 difficulty, 难过 sad ('hard to get through'). Read nàn, it's disaster: 灾难 calamity, 难民 refugee. Hard things and hard times share one character.
Example
困难 kùnnan — difficulty
这个汉字很难写。
Zhège hànzì hěn nán xiě.
This character is hard to write.
How to remember it
Try to HAND-catch a BIRD — that's DIFFICULT.
难得 'hard to get' flipped into a compliment: a 难得的朋友 is a rare and precious friend.
Same sound, different tones
Words unlocked by 难
困难 kùnnan
difficulty
难过 nánguò
sad
Related characters
LEARN 难 WITH STROKE-BY-STROKE WRITING → DOWNLOAD ZHIZHI
One character a morning · 401-character HSK library · iOS