烂 (làn): rotten; decayed

Meanings

1 rotten; decayed
2 mushy; soft; well-cooked
3 terrible; awful (colloquial)

Characters

烂

làn

rotten; overcooked; messy

Examples

这个苹果烂了，不能吃了。

Zhège píngguǒ làn le, bùnéng chī le.

This apple is rotten, you can't eat it anymore.

把肉炖烂一点。

Bǎ ròu dùn làn yìdiǎn.

Stew the meat until it's very tender.

这部电影太烂了！

Zhèbù diànyǐng tài làn le!

This movie is terrible!

他的中文烂得很。

Tā de Zhōngwén làn de hěn.

His Chinese is awful.

Tips

usage

As "terrible/awful" 烂 is very colloquial, common online. 烂片 = bad movie, 烂人 = terrible person, 烂大街 = extremely common, everywhere.

usage

The cooking sense is neutral or positive: 煮烂 (boil until soft). In most other contexts 烂 is strongly negative.

Components

radical

火 huǒ

fire

Left indexing fire radical - pictograph of flames rising. Anchors 烂 in the heat-and-cooking family alongside 烧 (burn), 烤 (roast), 烫 (scald). Rotting in classical thought was "fire-cooking from within": food breaks down because heat (or its equivalent) softens its structure. Also gives the secondary "brilliant, dazzling" sense (烂漫 brilliant glow).

phonetic

兰 lán

orchid (here phonetic)

Right 兰 supplies the sound (lán to làn with tone shift). The traditional 爛 had 蘭 (full orchid) on the right; the 1956 simplification trimmed it down to 兰. Pure phonetic role; the orchid meaning is unrelated. Same phonetic family: 拦 (block), 栏 (railing), 谰 (slander).