Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "难" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 难 in Chinese?

难 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /nan˧˥/. It means “difficult / hard.” nahn, climbing from mid to high. An open vowel between two front nasals, with the whole syllable made at the front of the mouth.

nahn, climbing from mid to high. An open vowel between two front nasals, with the whole syllable made at the front of the mouth.

难 /nan˧˥/

nán

The climb is fixed, and it matters for the negator: 不 stays as bù before this word, since the switch to bú is triggered only by a following fourth tone. There is also a second reading of the character, nàn with a falling tone, meaning disaster — so the direction of the pitch changes the meaning entirely.

Listen: 难

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

n- Alveolar n with the tongue tip on the ridge — the same gesture that will end the syllable.

-an The open "ah" of "father", not the flat vowel of English "nan". The tongue drops for the vowel and comes straight back to the ridge to close it.

nán (rising) An unbroken ascent from mid to high, comfortably carried by the open vowel and finished on the nasal.

Hear it in a sentence

中文不难。

Zhōngwén bù nán.

Chinese is not difficult.

Listen: 中文不难。

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

中文不难。 demonstrates exactly that restraint. Bù keeps its falling tone because nán is rising, so the sentence runs level, rising, falling, rising. Learners who have half-learned the 不 rule tend to fire it here and produce bú nán, which is wrong and immediately audible to a native ear.

Where English speakers slip

The vowel routinely comes out as the flat a of English "ban", too front and too tight; open the jaw toward "father". There is also a lurking near-neighbour in 蓝 lán, blue, which differs only in its initial — and a nasalised or weakly articulated l can drift toward n. Make the tongue tip contact firm and central for the n.