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

HSK 4

人生总会遇到一些坎。

Rénshēng zǒnghuì yùdào yìxiē kǎn.

Life always brings some difficulties.

HSK 5

路上有一个小坎，小心别摔倒。

Lùshang yǒu yí gè xiǎo kǎn, xiǎoxīn bié shuāidǎo.

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

HSK 7-9

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.

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.