艰苦 jiānkǔ difficult
difficult; hard; arduous
How to remember 艰苦: 艰 difficult + 苦 bitter = difficult.
Characters
How it is used
- Harsh, arduous - of conditions and struggle: 艰苦的环境 (jiānkǔ de huánjìng) tough conditions, 艰苦奋斗 (jiānkǔ fèndòu) struggle hard against adversity.
- Distinguish from 辛苦 (xīnkǔ), which is the tiring toil/effort itself; 艰苦 stresses the harshness of the circumstances one endures.
- Written, common in accounts of hardship, pioneering, war.
Example sentences
- 生活很艰苦。 Shēnghuó hěn jiānkǔ.Life has been very hard.