Chinese word dictionary

来之不易

láizhī-búyì · (idiom) hard to come by; not easily obtained

Practice word

Word information

Simplified来之不易

Traditional來之不易

Pinyinláizhī-búyì

Part of speechGeneral

HSK 3.07-9

HSK 2.0Not listed

Character breakdown

Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.

来lái

to arrive, to come, to return; in the future, later on

之zhī

marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; to go to

不bù

not; no

易yì

to change; to exchange, to trade; simple, easy

How to learn 来之不易

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.

Related vocabulary

Words with the same characters

Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.

不bù

no; not so; (bound form) not; un-

不客气búkèqi

you're welcome; don't mention it; impolite; rude; blunt

不要búyào

don't!; must not

对不起duìbuqǐ

I'm sorry; excuse me; I beg your pardon; to let (sb) down; to disappoint

来lái

to come; (used as a substitute for a more specific verb); hither (directional complement for motion toward the speaker, as in 回來|回来[hui2 lai5]); ever since (as in 自古以來|自古以来[zi4 gu3 yi3 lai2]); for the past (amount of time); (prefix) the coming ...; the next ... (as in 來世|来世[lai2 shi4]); (between two verbs) in order to; (after a round number) approximately; (used after 得[de2] to indicate possibility, as in 談得來|谈得来[tan2 de5 lai2], or after 不[bu4] to indicate impossibility, as in 吃不來|吃不来[chi1 bu5 lai2])

之zhī

(possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的); him; her; it