然 (rán) means Correct (thus - however). Below are 24 of the 101 sentences on this site that use it — with pinyin, an English translation and audio. All of them were written by hand; none is machine generated.
Dictionary examples
他突 然 站起来走了。
Tā tūrán zhàn qǐlai zǒu le.
He suddenly stood up and left.
Dictionary example · HSK 3 · 突然
他突 然 出现在门口。
Tā tūrán chūxiàn zài ménkǒu.
He suddenly appeared at the door.
Dictionary example · HSK 4 · 出现
这本书果 然 很好看。
Zhè běn shū guǒrán hěn hǎokàn.
This book really is as good as they say.
Dictionary example · HSK 5 · 果然
Reading these is one thing; producing 然 yourself is another. Cloze in Context takes a sentence from this same bank, removes one word and asks you to put it back — beginner, intermediate and advanced.
From the graded readers
然 后它摇起了尾巴。
ránhòu tā yáo qǐle wěiba.
Then it began to wag its tail.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · Going Back Home
那一刻，我的眼睛忽 然 湿了。
nà / nèi yīkè, wǒ de(possessive) yǎnjīng hūrán shī le / liǎo / liào.
In that moment my eyes suddenly stung.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · Going Back Home
忽 然 ，灯亮了，我的朋友们都在！
hūrán, dēng liàng le / liǎo / liào, wǒ de(possessive) péngyou men dōu zài!
Suddenly the lights came on and all my friends were there!
Graded reader · HSK 2 · An Anniversary Surprise
周末虽 然 短，可是我过得很开心。
zhōumò suīrán duǎn, kěshì wǒ guòde hěn kāixīn.
The weekend was short, but I enjoyed it.
Graded reader · HSK 2 · My Weekend
我跟他说了再见， 然 后走出了车站。
wǒ gēn tā shuōle zàijiàn, ránhòu zǒu chūle chēzhàn.
I said goodbye to him and walked out of the station.
Graded reader · HSK 2 · The Train to Shanghai
我忽 然 明白，时间带走的不只是样子。
wǒ hūrán míngbai, shíjiān dàizǒu de / dì bùzhǐ shì yàngzi.
I suddenly understood that what time takes away isn't only how you look.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · An Old Photograph
我们站在那里，忽 然 都不知道说什么好。
wǒmen zhàn zài nàli, hūrán dōu bùzhī dào shuō shénme hǎo / hào.
We stood there and suddenly neither of us knew what to say.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · Saying Goodbye
有一天早上，我起床的时候忽 然 觉得头很晕。
yǒu yī tiān zǎoshang, wǒ qǐchuáng de / dì shíhou hūrán juéde tóu hěn yūn / yùn.
One morning I got up and suddenly felt very dizzy.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · Facing Pressure
然 后，太阳慢慢地出来了，山上的风景美极了。
ránhòu, tàiyáng mànmàn dì / de chūlai le / liǎo / liào, shānshàng de / dì fēngjǐng měi jí le / liǎo / liào.
Then the sun came up slowly, and the view was stunning.
Graded reader · HSK 2 · A Trip With Friends
她看了很久， 然 后一个一个地告诉我他们是谁。
tā kànle hěn jiǔ, ránhòu yīgè yīgè dì / de gàosu wǒ tāmen shì shéi.
She looked at it for a long time, then told me one by one who they were.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · An Old Photograph
我走上台，看着下面那么多张脸，脑子忽 然 一片空白。
wǒ zǒushang tái, kànzhe xiàmian nàme duō zhāng liǎn, nǎozi hūrán yīpiàn kòngbái.
I walked on stage, looked at all those faces, and my mind went blank.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · My First Speech
然 appears in 101 sentences on this site; the 24 shortest and most direct are shown. The rest are on the pages they were written for — the graded readers, the phrasebook and the grammar library.
Words that contain 然
Each of these has sentences of its own, so you can see the character doing a different job in each one.
Questions about 然
How is 然 used in a sentence?
This page shows 101 sentences using 然 (rán, "Correct (thus - however)"), each with pinyin, an English translation and audio. Every one of them was written by hand for this site.
Are these sentences machine generated?
No. They come from the site's own dictionary examples, graded readers, travel phrasebook and grammar library — all written by a person. A word with no sentence gets no page here, rather than a page of invented ones.
Why do some sentences show 然 inside a longer word?
Because that is where a single character usually lives. Seeing 然 inside the words it builds is how the character stops being an isolated symbol and starts being something you can read.
Where can I see the full entry for 然?
The dictionary page for 然 has its stroke order, its traditional form, every sense the dictionary lists and a character-by-character breakdown. It is linked at the top of this page.
Keep going
Read the full entry for 然, write a sentence of your own and check it in the Pinyin Annotator, or search the whole sentence bank for another word.
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