坎 (kǎn): pit; hole

Measure Word

一道坎 dào

Meanings

1 pit; hole
2 ridge between fields
3 hardship; difficulty
4 one of the Eight Trigrams (water)

Characters

坎

kǎn

pit; ridge; difficulty

Examples

人生总会遇到一些坎。

Rénshēng zǒnghuì yùdào yìxiē kǎn.

Life always brings some difficulties.

他迈过了人生中最大的一道坎。

Tā mài guò le rénshēng zhōng zuì dà de yídào kǎn.

He got past the biggest hurdle in his life.

路上有一个小坎，小心别摔倒。

Lùshang yǒu yígè xiǎo kǎn, xiǎoxīn bié shuāidǎo.

There's a small bump on the road, be careful not to trip.

Tips

usage

The figurative meaning 'hurdle/difficulty' is very common, especially in 过坎 (get past a difficulty) and 一道坎 (a hurdle).

culture

坎 (Kǎn) is one of the Eight Trigrams (八卦) representing water and danger in the I Ching.

Components

radical

土 tǔ

earth; soil

土 on the left grounds 坎 in the earth-and-terrain family alongside 坑 (pit), 堤 (dyke), and 城 (wall). The radical marks it as a feature shaped from soil — here a sunken hollow.

phonetic

欠 qiàn

owe; lack

欠 supplies a phonetic that has drifted from qiàn to kǎn but stays in the same rhyme zone. The lacking sense fits faintly: a 坎 is ground that lacks something, a missing scoop of earth.