Chinese words starting with “nan”
23 words in our HSK vocabulary start with the syllable nan. They are sorted by how common they are, so the ones you are most likely to meet come first. The 16 most useful of them have their own page — they are listed first below.
Initial n · final an · hear the four tones and see example characters →
- 2nd tone 23
Word counts by tone are counted on the first syllable of each word.
Common words with this syllable
- 男人nán rénHSK 1
a man; a male; men
- 难道nán dàoHSK 3
don't tell me ...; could it be that...?
- 难以nán yǐHSK 5
hard to (predict, imagine etc)
- 男子nán zǐHSK 3
a man; a male
- 难过nán guòHSK 2
to feel sad; to feel unwell; (of life) to be difficult
- 男生nán shēngHSK 1
schoolboy; male student; boy; guy (young adult male)
- 男朋友nán péng youHSK 1
boyfriend
- 南方nán fāngHSK 2
south; the southern part of the country; the South
- 难受nán shòuHSK 2
to feel unwell; to suffer pain; to be difficult to bear
- 难度nán dùHSK 3
degree of difficulty
- 南部nán bùHSK 3
southern part
- 难题nán tíHSK 2
difficult problem
- 难看nán kànHSK 2
ugly; unsightly
- 南边nán bianHSK 1
south; south side; southern part; to the south of
- 难听nán tīngHSK 2
unpleasant to hear; coarse; vulgar; offensive; shameful
- 男孩儿nán hái rHSK 1
erhua variant of 男孩; boy
All 23 words
| # | Word | Pinyin | POS | Meaning | Study list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 难 | nán | ad,a,v,g | difficult (to...); problem; difficulty; difficult; not good | |
| 2 | 男 | nán | b,g | male; Baron, lowest of five orders of nobility 位 | |
| 3 | 南 | nán | b,f | south | |
| 4 | 男性 | nán xìng | n | the male sex; a male | |
| 5 | 男女 | nán nǚ | n | male-female; male and female | |
| 6 | 难得 | nán dé | a,ad | seldom; rare; hard to come by | |
| 7 | 难怪 | nán guài | d | (it's) no wonder (that...); (it's) not surprising (that) | |
| 8 | 男士 | nán shì | n | man; gentleman | |
| 9 | 难忘 | nán wàng | a,v | unforgettable | |
| 10 | 难免 | nán miǎn | v | hard to avoid; difficult to escape from; will inevitably | |
| 11 | 南瓜 | nán guā | n | pumpkin | |
| 12 | 难以置信 | nán yǐ zhì xìn | v | hard to believe; incredible | |
| 13 | 难堪 | nán kān | a,v,an | hard to take; embarrassed | |
| 14 | 难关 | nán guān | n | difficulty; crisis | |
| 15 | 南北 | nán běi | f | north and south; north to south | |
| 16 | 南极 | nán jí | ns | south pole | |
| 17 | 难处 | nán chu | n | trouble; difficulty; problem | |
| 18 | 难点 | nán diǎn | n | difficulty | |
| 19 | 难为情 | nán wéi qíng | a | embarrassed | |
| 20 | 难说 | nán shuō | v | hard to tell (i.e. hard to judge or hard to predict); cannot bring oneself to say it | |
| 21 | 难能可贵 | nán néng kě guì | v | rare and precious; valuable; remarkable | |
| 22 | 难得一见 | nán dé yī jiàn | rarely seen | ||
| 23 | 难以想象 | nányǐxiǎngxiàng | Unimaginable |
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