尴 (gān): awkward; embarrassed (bound; on…

Meanings

1 awkward; embarrassed (bound; only in 尴尬)

Characters

尴

gān

awkward (bound in 尴尬)

Examples

我们现在的处境真尴尬。

Wǒmen xiànzài de chǔjìng zhēn gāngà.

What an awkward situation we're in.

他被当场抓住，样子十分尴尬。

Tā bèi dāngchǎng zhuāzhù, yàngzi shífēn gāngà.

Caught red-handed, he looked utterly mortified.

就在这时，她笑了，打破了尴尬的沉默。

Jiù zài zhè shí, tā xiào le, dǎpò le gāngà de chénmò.

Just then she laughed and broke the awkward silence.

Tips

usage

尴 is a bound character — you only meet it inside 尴尬 (awkward / embarrassed). The compound is one of the highest-frequency emotion words in modern Chinese, used for everything from a botched introduction to a diplomatic standoff. Common collocations: 尴尬的局面 (awkward situation), 感到尴尬 (feel embarrassed), 化解尴尬 (defuse the awkwardness).

mistakes

Both characters take a 尢 (lame-leg radical) on the left — students often mis-read the right side. Pronunciation is gān-gà (first tone + fourth tone). A common colloquial misreading jiān gā is heard but is not standard.

Components

radical

尢 yóu

lame leg; outstretched

Left 尢 (Kangxi #43) — depicts a person with bent or unequal legs; semantically suggests 'off-balance / unable to walk straight'. Anchors the awkward / off-kilter feeling in the meaning.

phonetic

监 jiān

supervise; inspect

Right 监 (the simplified shape of 監, a vessel + watching eye) is the phonetic — the reading drifted from jiān to gān in this compound. The component visually combines well: someone with bent legs being watched / inspected = unmistakably 'caught in an awkward posture'.