Chinese word dictionary

苦尽甘来

kǔjìn-gānlái · bitterness finishes, sweetness begins (idiom); the hard times are over, the good times just beginning

Practice word

Word information

Simplified苦尽甘来

Traditional苦盡甘來

Pinyinkǔjìn-gānlái

Part of speechv

HSK 3.07-9

HSK 2.06

Character breakdown

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

苦kǔ

bitter; hardship, suffering

尽jǐn

to exhaust, to use up, to deplete

甘gān

sweet, tasty; willing

来lái

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

How to learn 苦尽甘来

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.

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])

出来chūlái

to come out; to appear; to arise

过来guòlái

to come over; to manage; to handle; to be able to take care of

回来huílái

to return; to come back

进来jìnlái

to come in

起来qǐlái

to stand up; to get up; also pr. [qi3lai2]