硬

yìng

adjective/adverb HSK 5 #2,237

Meanings

Zhè kuài miànbāo tài yìng le.

This bread is too hard.

Tā de tàidù hěn yìng.

His attitude is very firm/tough.

Tā yìng yào gēn wǒmen yīqǐ qù.

She insisted on going with us.

Tā yìng shuō zìjǐ méi cuò.

He stubbornly insists he did nothing wrong.

usage

硬 as an adverb means 'stubbornly/by force': 硬要 (insist on), 硬说 (insist on saying), 硬撑 (force oneself to endure). Very common in spoken Chinese.

usage

Opposite: 软 (ruǎn, soft). 硬 vs 软 appears in many pairs: 硬件/软件 (hardware/software), 硬座/软座 (hard seat/soft seat on trains).

硬 yìng