Contents
- 1 Hardest Words In Chinese
- 1.1 Chinese characters and their numbers
- 1.2 Compendium of Chinese word list
- 1.3 The Chinese Symbol for Listening
- 1.4 Conclusion
- 1.5 Start Learning Chinese Characters Today!
- 1.5.1 Sign up our free trial to learn Mandarin and download the Chinese App for more Chinese language materials and to learn Mandarin online.
Chinese is spoken by almost 25% of the world population. But, despite its many speakers, Chinese has been labeled by some as the hardest language to learn. Any language that is foreign or is not your mother tongue can always be classified as hard. However, not all foreign languages are complicated for language learners.
A French national may find it easy to learn Italian and vice versa. However, Chinese is in a league of its own. The basis on which the Chinese language is learned and practiced is hard for both the Chinese and foreigners alike. Therefore, this article explores and exhaust the most complicated Chinese words.
The intonation of Chinese sounds is in a manner that is distinct from English. The difference in the resonance of the two languages distinguishes between English and Chinese when either of the two. They share a similarity. Because both enable expression of feelings considering the sound produced.
Chinese is therefore not hard to learn because words in Chinese make sense despite employing wrong tonal variation. The characters beget intonation in Chinese which determine to understand articulated words. However, today we are going to explore the hardest words in Chinese. This CHinese words will include the hardest Chinese word to pronounce as well as Chinese words that are commonly mispronounced.
Chinese characters and their numbers
Current data are insufficient in giving how many Chinese words in the Chinese language are there but points that, the Chinese language had 54,678 Chinese characters. The numbers are high considering, a word like listen to consists of only six characters. Currently, the official number of the characters has been reduced to around 7000 characters. The reductions were caused by constant revision of the Chinese language and its components in the Great. So luckily, the most complex Chinese character is not used as frequently as it once was and the hardest Chinese words aren’t so hard anymore.
Compendium of Chinese word list
A cocktail of complex characters makes Chinese a complicated second language to learn. The characters’ pronunciation forms a specific sound which when pronounced the wrong way, distorts even the central importance of a word. It is paramount therefore to master pronunciations for effective communication. Hence, characters are the essential components of learning Chinese.
The hardest Chinese characters in the literature include biáng, zhé and nàng. Biáng and zhé which are pronunciations of words in Chinese templates. These words in the Chinese template no longer exist in the modern standard Mandarin.
Evolution has made some of the characters obsolete, and nowadays, many are just words in Chinese template. But of great historical value. The characters’ complexity is high that to write a single character like zhé requires 64 strokes to write a simple word like scary. The complications are visible for all to see. Biáng, a simple text yet the longest character in Chinese, becomes complete only by fusing 64 strokes. If that is not hard, what is?
The Chinese Symbol for Listening
Chinese symbol for listening when looked at, as a word in Chinese template. It does not appear like a text comprising of as many as six characters namely, eye, ears, king, heart, undivided attention and you. Contemplate writing a single word using six separate components to mean a single word to insinuate active listening in English.
The Chinese characters for listening constitute, have the following underlying meanings:
- You – as the listener, one need to participate actively to ensure quality communication, failure to which the message risk getting lost or being distorted
- Eyes – you listen with your eye to maintain eye contact. Eye contact encourages speaker by staying interested on the topic. In the process, you learn a lot by observing the talker.
- Undivided Attention– commit to listening to the speaker and shun distractions from passersby
- Heart – listen with your heart and apply logic in your thinking. Listen even if you are not in agreement.
- King – accord the listener the respect of a monarch because you are not aware of the essence of what is about to be said.
- Ear – use your eyes to pay attention, listen to every single word and the mood of the situation.
Chinese like all other languages cannot stand the tests of time and remain pure like it was when it was conceived as a language. Do not be surprised to walk through Beijing; you would not help but notice words in Chinese template feature prominently, acting like banners. Conservation of the Chinese culture is experienced on everywhere around you.
Conclusion
Fusion of Chinese language with other languages to develop Chinese slang words, serve as an example that as younger generation come through. That language gets distorted to establish phrases very informal and restricted to a certain age. The number 520 is among Chinese slangs. For instance, 520 means, I love you. The pronunciations of the number and I love you are so close that they are substituted to mean the other.
As I wind up this paper, I pose, is Chinese hard to learn? My answer is simply that learning Chinese as a second language requires undivided attention. The answer to the question posed above is yes it is hard, but not as hard you might think. After all, Chinese is a language like any other.
The fact that Chinese use it is reason enough to conclude, Chinese is not as difficult as perceived. It is stereotypic to think so. To learn Chinese, you only require unwavering commitment and continuous learning.
Start Learning Chinese Characters Today!
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Last updated:
January 4, 2023
Yin and yang, P.F. Chang’s… Chinese words can’t be all that difficult to pronounce, right?
The truth? Chinese has vocab words that are difficult to read out loud at first because our minds automatically think in English when faced with pinyin.
Believe it or not, you already know all the sounds of those difficult words, despite pinyin being drastically different from the Latin alphabet.
We’ll show you how to tackle those typically hard-to-pronounce Chinese words without breaking a sweat.
Contents
- 1. 四十四 (sì shí sì) — 44
- 2. 去 (qù) — go
- 3. 日 (rì) — sun
- 4. 月亮 (yuè liàng) — moon
- 5. 喝 (hē) — to drink
- 6. 寸 (cùn) — inch
- 7. 出租车 (chū zū chē) — taxi
- 8. 自行车 (zì xíng chē) — bicycle
- 9. 鞋子 (xié zi) — shoes
- 10. 裙子 (qún zi) — skirt
- How to Pronounce Difficult Chinese Vowels
- How to Pronounce Difficult Chinese Consonants
Download:
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you
can take anywhere.
Click here to get a copy. (Download)
1. 四十四 (sì shí sì) — 44
This one’s definitely a tongue twister on its own, having to switch between the consonants s and sh. The pinyin consonants s and sh have the same pronunciation as the pinyin si and shi, so this word contains sounds that you already know from the pinyin alphabet system.
What’s most difficult about 四十四 is incorporating an “r” sound into the mix even though it’s not indicated in the pinyin. But referring to the guide above, you’re basically saying “si shr si,” with the fourth, second and fourth tones respectively.
2. 去 (qù) — go
One thing you have to know about the pinyin vowel u is that it sounds like ü when it’s preceded by the consonants j, q, x and y.
Thus, rather than pronouncing 去 as “ch-oo,” you’d pronounce it as the word “chew” with a small, round mouth and in the fourth tone.
3. 日 (rì) — sun
Ri sounds exactly as r does in the pinyin alphabet, so it shouldn’t be completely out of your comfort zone. The key is to not resort to American phonetics when you see r in pinyin.
As I indicated in the previous section, 日 sounds more like “ir” in the word “irk,” with emphasis on the “r” and with the fourth tone applied.
4. 月亮 (yuè liàng) — moon
Remember what I said about u following j, q, x and y, and earlier when I pointed out that ue is actually üe minus the umlaut? The combination ue on its own can be pretty tough to pronounce, though when combined with a consonant, pronunciation is a little more straightforward.
月 is said like the word “you-eh,” then 亮 would be “lee-ahng.” Both characters are pronounced with the fourth tone, so that shouldn’t be too hard.
5. 喝 (hē) — to drink
Not to be mistaken for the English word “he,” the pronunciation of 喝 is actually “h-uh,” though it isn’t said the same way as you would say “huh.”
Hē is a longer syllable and said with much less gusto in comparison, as it’s said in the first tone.
6. 寸 (cùn) — inch
Since 寸 begins with the pinyin consonant c, the u doesn’t need to be pronounced the same as ü.
The most difficult part about this word is getting the c right; the rest is smooth sailing. As I’ve said before, c is like “tsi,” so 寸 would be “tsi-un” together with the fourth tone.
7. 出租车 (chū zū chē) — taxi
The challenge here is the ch-z-ch combination because it has you changing positions of your tongue, then your mouth and tongue. That might have not made any sense just yet, but you’ll see what I mean once you say the word yourself.
Pronounce 出 like “ch-oo” (not the same as “choo” like the sound of a train), 租 as “tzi-oo” and 车 like “ch” + “uh,” using the first tone with all three characters.
8. 自行车 (zì xíng chē) — bicycle
Here’s a term that uses three letters from the list of difficult consonants. Although the pinyin looks rather intimidating, it’s all just about breaking it down into sounds you recognize.
For 自, you’d say it as “tzi” with the fourth tone; for 行, you’d say it as “shing” with the second or rising tone; and for 车, you’d say it as “ch-uh” with the first tone.
9. 鞋子 (xié zi) — shoes
Just like we did with the previous terms, let’s change the pinyin into American English sounds you’d understand.
鞋子 can be read as “sh-ye tzi,” with the rising tone on just the first character. Not too hard to pronounce when it’s put that way, right?
10. 裙子 (qún zi) — skirt
Taking in everything we’ve covered in the previous nine terms, this might not seem as complicated anymore.
In American English, 裙子 would be read as “ch-win zi,” with the second tone on just the first character
How to Pronounce Difficult Chinese Vowels
| Chinese Vowel | Pronunciation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| e | Sounds like «uh.» | 饿 (è) — hungry |
| u | Sounds like «oo» in «zoo.» | 不 (bù) — not |
| ü | Say «ew» with a small, round mouth. | 女 (nǚ) — woman |
| ue | Say «ew» with a small, round mouth + «eh.» Notice the u here is basically ü without the umlaut. | 学 (xué) — to study |
| ie | Sounds like «ee» + «eh.» | 别 (bié) — don’t, other |
You can always refer back to an earlier guide that breaks down all the Chinese vowel sounds and combinations.
How to Pronounce Difficult Chinese Consonants
| Chinese Consonant | Pronunciation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| q | Sounds like “chee” in “cheese.” | 请 (qǐng) — please |
| x | Sounds like the word “she” but with a wider mouth. | 想 (xiǎng) — to think, want to |
| zh | Sounds like “jur” in “jury” but with a smaller mouth. | 这 (zhè) — this |
| ch | Sounds like “chr.” | 吃 (chī) — to eat |
| sh | Sounds like “shr.” | 是 (shì) — to be |
| r | Sounds like “ir” in “irk.” | 人 (rén) — person |
| z | Sounds like “tzi,” where the “zi” sounds like the beginning of “zip.” | 在 (zài) — in, on, at |
| c | Sounds like “tsi,” where the “si” sounds like the beginning of “sip.” | 错 (cuò) — wrong |
You can check out the master list of pinyin consonants if you need help with any others that aren’t listed here.
These sounds can seem tricky at first because they’re not as familiar, but they’ll be rolling off your tongue with enough practice!
To start off, try playing the audio for each of the words and then repeating them out loud.
You can even look them up on FluentU’s multimedia dictionary, which includes plenty of sentence and video examples. The mobile app actually tests your pronunciation, with quizzes that incorporate voice recognition.
And if you really want a challenge, go for Chinese tongue twisters.
Soon enough, there won’t be any new Chinese words that you can’t pronounce!
Download:
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you
can take anywhere.
Click here to get a copy. (Download)
The character biáng requires 62 total strokes to write and contains a 馬 horse, 月 moon,刂 knife and 心 heart plus other radicals. Biáng doesn’t exist in Modern Standard Mandarin which only serves to increase the mystery and intrigue surrounding the character.
The most complex character, biáng (above), is made up of 57 strokes. This character occurs in the written form of biángbiáng miàn, or biangbiang noodles, a dish of wide, flat noodles popular in the Chinese province of Shaanxi.
What does Biang mean in Chinese?
According to an article on China Daily, the word “biang” actually refers to the sound made by the chef when he creates the noodles by pulling the dough and slapping it on the table.
Is Chinese hard to write?
Mandarin Chinese is challenging for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the writing system is extremely difficult for English speakers (and anyone else) accustomed to the Latin alphabet.
Why is Chinese writing so hard?
Chinese doesn’t use an alphabet. It’s a pictorial language that relies on strokes and radicals to make up individual Chinese characters that then go on to make up Chinese words. This means that you cannot just read the language after you learn the alphabet.
What is the easiest Chinese character?
Here’s a list of some of the simplest characters in the Chinese language:
- 八 (bā) – “eight”
- 九 (jiǔ) – “nine”
- 十 (shí) – “ten”
- 月 (yuè) – “month”
- 大 (dà) – “big”
- 水 (shuǐ) – “water”
- 人 (rén) – “people” or “person”
- 口 (kǒu) – “mouth”
What is the hardest language to learn?
The Hardest Languages In The World To Learn
- Mandarin. Right at the top is the most spoken language in the world: Mandarin. …
- Arabic. Number two, Arabic, challenges English speakers because most letters are written in 4 different forms depending on where they’re placed in a word. …
- Japanese. …
- Hungarian. …
- Korean. …
- Finnish. …
- Basque. …
- Navajo.
6 дек. 2016 г.
Is Chinese traditional hard?
Well, the Chinese speaking world outside mainland China, including Hong Kong, uses traditional Chinese. The Simplified creation was a Chinese government initiative to improve literacy rates, because well, Chinese is hard. … Traditional Chinese forms are more numerous, require more strokes, and easier to recognize.
What does Chinese sound like to foreigners?
Originally Answered: How does Chinese sound like to non-native speakers? 1- It sounds pitchy. Similar to English, people don’t always have good spoken skills and good sounding voices. 2- it sounds loud.
What is the most difficult kanji?
たいと(taito) is the most difficult Japanese Kanji on the record with a total of 84 strokes. It is formed by combining 3 雲 (くもkumo) with 3 龍 (りゅうRyuu). 雲means cloud and 龍 means dragon in English. たいと is said to be a type of Japanese surname.
What is the hardest word to say?
The Most Difficult English Word To Pronounce
- Rural.
- Otorhinolaryngologist.
- Colonel.
- Penguin.
- Sixth.
- Isthmus.
- Anemone.
- Squirrel.
26 окт. 2018 г.
Is Chinese harder than Japanese?
Which is harder to learn, Chinese or Japanese? … So for English speakers, Chinese is easier than Japanese from this aspect. Chinese grammar is generally considered a lot easier to learn than Japanese. Chinese is an isolating language, even more so than English, with no verb conjugations, noun cases or grammatical gender.
Which language is the easiest to learn in the world?
And The Easiest Language To Learn Is…
- Norwegian. This may come as a surprise, but we have ranked Norwegian as the easiest language to learn for English speakers. …
- Swedish. …
- Spanish. …
- Dutch. …
- Portuguese. …
- Indonesian. …
- Italian. …
- French.
24 февр. 2021 г.
Is Chinese slow to write?
Written Chinese is dense, so though comprehension of characters is slower than letters, meaning is conveyed at the same rate as in English. … That’s because each syllable in a fast-sounding language like Spanish has less meaning than a slower one like English or Chinese.
Can you read Chinese without speaking?
So indeed I was able to read (and write) Chinese without being able to speak it… Yes you can. … Of course you can begin by concentrating on reading if you like. But there are such good digital aids to the spoken language that you really should use them too.
Is Chinese worth learning?
It’s worth learning because knowing Mandarin will make your travel easier. Being able to speak and understand Chinese Mandarin will greatly benefit your trip in China. For most Chinese people, especially those who are not living in the tier top city, communicating in English will be impossible.
Chinese characters are made up of strokes. Learning to write them involves not only learning where all the strokes go, but also the order in which they are supposed to be written and the direction of each individual stroke.
Today we are going to learn one of most complex Chinese characters biáng. This character occurs in the written form of biáng biáng miàn, or biáng biáng noodles, a dish of wide and flat noodles that popular in the Shaanxi province.
There are 52 strokes in total in this simplified Chinese character, and 62 in the traditional Chinese character. It contains 5 simple characters [马] horse, [月] moon, [长] long, [心] heart and [言] word, and also 4 radicals such as [刂] knife, [穴] cave. In fact, nowadays biáng cannot be found in any modern Chinese dictionaries.
Background history
The origin of this Chinese character is still uncertain. Generally, the character biáng was invented by an unknown Chinese Scholar in the Ming and Qing dynasty in the noodles restaurant.
The time period cannot be told. It was only mentioned that there was a poor young Chinese Scholar going to Xianyang city in Shaanxi. When he passed by a noodle restaurant at lunchtime, he heard something sounds like biáng biáng made by the noodle chef (the sound of noodles slapping on the table). He suddenly felt hungry and went inside the restaurant.
In the restaurant, the Chinese Scholar saw the noodle dish served with yellow, green and white ingredients, smelt very tasty that he was so excited and ordered one. After he finished eating the noodles, he realized that he had no money to pay the bill. Then he asked the chef: What is the name of this noodles? Biáng biáng mian the chef replied. After that the Chinese Scholar asked him how do you write biáng? The chef cannot answer his question as he never thought about this before.
The Chinese Scholar continue to say: Let me write the character for you then my noodles are for free? He didn’t give the chef any chance to say no, he began to grab some papers and quickly wrote a character. This was such a complicated Chinese character that everyone in the restaurant was speechless and amazed at its complicated combinations.
The noodles chef was grinning widely, and gave him the noodles for free.
Though it is a complex Chinese character, biáng symbolizes the difficulty of accommodating the Chinese traditional folk, local cultures and languages that became the standard of Chinese wriing system, which represent the elite culture of China.