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原谅 (yuán liàng) — to forgive, to excuse, to pardon

Definition

原谅 means to forgive a person for what they did wrong. It is more formal and personal than 包容 ('to tolerate/be tolerant of'), and lighter than 饶恕, which is used for serious offenses.

verb
to forgiveto excuseto pardon

Examples

  • 原谅，。
    Qǐng yuán liàng wǒ, wǒ bú shì gù yì de.
    Please forgive me, I didn't mean it.
  • 原谅。
    Tā yǐ jīng yuán liàng le nǐ de cuò wù.
    He has already forgiven your mistake.
  • 原谅？
    Nǐ néng yuán liàng tā ma?
    Can you forgive him?

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

原yuánforgive
谅liàngforgive or understand

原 and 谅 both carry the idea of forgiving or understanding, so together they mean to excuse or pardon.

Characters in this word

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

原 combines 泉 (spring) and 厂 (cliff), picturing a spring bursting from a cliff-side, which gives the sense of origin or source.

Open 原 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 谅 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 4HSK 2.0 Level 41000 Most Frequent Chinese WordsConflict & Agreement2000 Most Frequent Chinese Words3000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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