Dictionary › 忽然

忽然

hū rán

Old HSK 4 HSK 3.0 level 4 2-character word

忽然 (hū rán) means "suddenly; all of a sudden". It is an HSK 3.0 level 4 word, and was HSK 4 in the old six-level list.

What 忽然 means

1. suddenly; all of a sudden

How 忽然 is used in grammar

忽然 is a grammar word. Each link goes to its own section: what it does in that pattern, the structure, three example sentences with pinyin, and the mistake to avoid.

• Time Adverbs: 刚、还、忽然、一直、已经 (HSK 2)

The official HSK 3.0 grammar outline lists it at level 4, adverbs (时间副词).

The characters in 忽然

• 忽hūto neglect; to overlook; to ignore
• 然ráncorrect; right; so

Example sentences

• 忽然天气转为多云。
  Hūrán tiānqì zhuǎn wèi duōyún.
  All of a sudden, it became cloudy.
• 我忽然想起了我死去的妈妈。
  Wǒ hūrán xiǎngqǐ le wǒ sǐqù de māma.
  I suddenly thought of my dead mother.
• 有时我会在一瞬间忽然迷失说话的脉络，像是忽然刮来一阵狂风，将正在演奏的乐谱吹得无影无踪。
  Sometimes I will lose the context of my speech in an instant, as if a sudden gust of wind blows away the music score being played without leaving a trace.

Where 忽然 is taught

In the GraphChinese course it is part of Time adverbs & temporal expressions (HSK 4), each one a topic in the dependency graph of HSK 1–6 that opens only once its prerequisites are solid.

Go deeper

• Every HSK 4 word, with the rest of its level.
• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read hū rán correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.