乍暖还寒

乍暖還寒
zhànuǎnhuánhán
idiom

Meanings

  1. 1 warm one moment, cold the next
  2. 2 (of early spring weather) alternating between warm and cold

Examples

Chūntiān zhànuǎnhuánhán, yào zhùyì bǎonuǎn.
Spring swings between warm and cold — be careful to stay warm.
Zhè jǐ tiān zhànuǎnhuánhán, hěn róngyì gǎnmào.
The past few days have been warm then cold again — easy to catch a cold.

Tips

history
From Li Qingzhao's 《》 (Song dynasty): "乍暖还寒时候" — "at that warm-then-cold time, it's hardest to recover." One of the most quoted lines in classical ci poetry.
mistakes
here is read huán (4th tone, "return; again"), NOT hái ("still"). The phrase means "just warm, then cold returns."

Stroke Order

zhà
nuǎn
hái
hán