jan2 sam1忍心
Jyutpingjan2 sam1
Yaleyán sām
Definition
Hard-hearted, unfeeling, or having the heart to do something cruel.
colloquialemotionpeople
How it's used
Focuses on the internal struggle between one's conscience and the necessity of an action. It is almost exclusively used with a negative marker like 唔 to express that someone is too kind or soft-hearted to perform a harsh act. When used in a rhetorical question, it serves to emphasize the speaker's inability to be cruel.
Examples
They are in such a miserable state, how could I have the heart not to help them?
Seeing the cat so hungry, I really didn't have the heart to just walk away.
Related words
Common mistake
Learners often mistake this for a general description of someone who is mean or cruel, but it specifically describes the emotional inability to be cold-blooded in a particular situation. It is not used to describe a person's permanent personality trait like 刻薄.
Grammar color guide
Noun
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Adjective
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Grammar guides
- 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.
- Possession (嘅)How to say my, your, and his, and how to link a describing word to a noun, all with the little word 嘅 (ge3).
