ENESFRDE中文

Characters, words, pinyin or English

狠 hěn vicious

vicious; fierce; cruel; ruthless

How to remember 狠: 犭 dog + 艮 stubborn = vicious. The neighbour's dog is stubborn about his bone and growls at the postman, looking vicious.

  • HSK 6
  • 9 strokes
  • Radical 犭

Component breakdown

狠 = 犭 dog + 艮 stubborn

  • 犭 dog
  • 艮 stubborn
The Gushi story

The neighbour's dog is stubborn about his bone and growls at the postman, looking vicious.

How it is used

  • Ruthless/fierce/cruel - 心狠 (xīnhěn) hard-hearted, 凶狠 (xiōnghěn) fierce and cruel.
  • Adverbially 'hard/severely/resolutely': 狠狠地打 (hěnhěn de dǎ) to hit hard, 下狠心 (xià hěnxīn) to steel oneself to do something drastic.
  • 狠 conveys merciless determination; distinguish from homophone 很 (hěn, 'very') - same sound, unrelated.
  • 心狠手辣 (xīnhěn-shǒulà) = cruel and merciless.

Words with 狠