gaan1 sam1艱深艰深
Jyutpinggaan1 sam1
Yalegāan sām
Definition
Difficult to understand, complex, or abstruse; most often used to describe academic problems.
neutraldescriptionsschool
How it's used
Reserved primarily for formal contexts like academic texts, philosophical discussions, or technical jargon. It carries a sense of intellectual weight that makes it sound unnatural if used to describe everyday tasks or simple chores. When describing something that is just physically hard to do, use 難 instead.
Examples
The content of this book is too abstruse, I can't understand it.
Do you have a simpler way to explain it? This one is too complex.
Related words
Common phrases
the content is abstruse
the theory is complex
Common mistake
Learners often confuse this with 複雜, which refers to something having many intricate parts or layers. 艱深 specifically highlights the difficulty of comprehension or the depth of the subject matter, rather than the complexity of a structure or process.
Grammar color guide
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Pronoun
Classifier
Particle
Connector
Grammar guides
- Aspect markersCantonese has no tenses, but it does have aspect markers. Learn how zo2, gwo3, gan2, and hai2 dou6 show completion, experience, and ongoing action.
- In 30 secondsThe whole language at a glance. No tenses, no plurals, six tones, sentence particles. Read this before you dive into any specific topic.
- ParticlesSentence particles add tone, emotion, and nuance. Learn the most common particles in Cantonese and how to use them.
