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难得 (nán dé) — rare; hard to come by (of something seldom happening and therefore valuable)

Definition

难得 means something good is rare and therefore worth cherishing — it's 'hard to come by' with a positive, appreciative tone. 少见 is more neutral and just means 'not often seen'; 罕见 is more formal/literary for genuinely uncommon things.

adjective
rarehard to come by (of something seldom happening and therefore valuable)

Examples

  • 难得。
    Zuì jìn nán dé yǒu shí jiān xiū xi.
    I rarely have time to rest lately.
  • 难得。
    Tā nán dé qǐng yí cì kè.
    He rarely treats people to a meal.
  • 难得。
    Zhè shì nán dé de lǐ wù.
    This is a rare gift.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

难nánhard
得déget

难 (hard) and 得 (get) give 'hard to get', so something rare or seldom happening.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 難; 难 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
隹隹zhuībird
Sound part声符shēngfú
暵
暵hàn難nán
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional 難 pairs 隹, a bird, with 暵 for sound, and meant a type of bird. It was later borrowed for other meanings; the modern 难 is a shorthand.

Open 难 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

The old form 㝵 showed a hand picking up a cowry, meaning to obtain; later changes turned that picture into 得.

Open 得 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 5HSK 2.0 Level 6Good & Bad

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