无妨 (wú fáng) — (auxiliary) there's no harm in; it's fine to; m…

Definition

无妨 is a formal/literary 'there's no harm in, might as well' — softer than 不妨, which is the everyday spoken equivalent. Use it to suggest an action is acceptable or worth trying.

auxiliary verb

(auxiliary) there's no harm init's fine tomight as well

Examples

无妨。
Nǐ wú fáng xiān kàn kàn zài shuō.
You might as well take a look first before deciding.
无妨。
Zhè ge wèn tí wú fáng yǐ hòu zài tǎo lùn.
There's no harm in discussing this issue later.
，无妨。
Jì rán dà jiā dōu yǒu kòng, wú fáng yì qǐ chī fàn.
Since everyone is free, we might as well eat together.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

无wúhave no

妨fánghindrance

无 means to have no, and 妨 means hindrance, so the combined sense is that there is no harm.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 無; 无 is its simplified writing.

For the simplified 无, the story is about 無. 無 drew a person dancing with ox tails held in both hands to pray for rain, then was borrowed for 'have no', so the picture does not explain that meaning.

Open 无 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

女方妨

Meaning part形符xíngfú

女女nǚ

Sound part声符shēngfú

方

方fāng妨fáng

Same sound today

妨 pairs 女 (woman) with 方, which once meant taking up space, to show someone being blocked from approaching a woman.

Open 妨 →

Appears in