Character breakdown
Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.
How to learn 刻苦
Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.
When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.
Words with the same characters
Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.
quarter (hour); moment; to carve; to engrave; to cut; oppressive; classifier for short time intervals
苦kǔbitter; hardship; pain; to suffer; to bring suffering to; painstakingly
辛苦xīnkǔexhausting; hard; tough; arduous; to work hard; to go to a lot of trouble; hardship(s)
艰苦jiānkǔdifficult; hard; arduous
立刻lìkèimmediately; at once; right away
深刻shēnkèprofound; deep; deep-going