艰 (jiān) — difficult; arduous (bound form)
Definition
艰 (jiān) is a bound morpheme meaning 'difficult / arduous' — it never stands alone. It combines with characters like 难 (艰难), 苦 (艰苦), 险 (艰险) to make fixed compound adjectives.
bound form
difficultarduous (bound form)
Examples
- ，。Shēng huó suī rán hěn jiān nán, dàn wǒ men bù néng fàng qì.Although life is hard, we cannot give up.
- 。Tā men jīng lì le jiān kǔ de xùn liàn cái chéng gōng.They succeeded only after going through arduous training.
- ，。Qián fāng dào lù jiān xiǎn, dà jiā yào xiǎo xīn.The road ahead is dangerous and difficult — everyone must be careful.
Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.