Expressing "no wonder"

难怪 (nánguài) can be used to express that the speaker finds something unsurprising. It can be used alone or in a variety of different structures, as shown below.

难怪 as "it is not surprising that"

Here 难怪 is used to convey the speaker's lack of amazement at a situation, having recently acquired some new information that in his opinion explains it. It is used in much the same way as 怪不得, which can replace 难怪 in the structure without altering its meaning.

Structure 1

难怪/怪不得 + ([observation])

Examples

• 他 和 女朋友 分手 了，难怪 他 最近 一直 不 高兴。He and his girlfriend broke up. No wonder he's been so unhappy recently.
• 小张 请假 了，难怪 今天 没有 看到 他。Little Zhang asked for some vacation time, no wonder I haven't seen him today.
• 难怪！No wonder!

Structure 2

难怪 + [observation]，原来 + [reason]

Examples

• 难怪 老板 生气 了，原来 那 个 大 客户 取消 了 订单。No wonder the boss is angry. It turns out that that important customer cancelled his order.
• 难怪 这里 人 这么 多，原来 在 打折。No wonder there are so many people here. There's a sale going on.
• 难怪 他 天天 迟到，原来 他 要 自己 照顾 孩子。No wonder he's late every day. It turns out he's raising his kids by himself.

难怪 as "is not to be blamed"

This one is definitely less common, but sometimes 难怪 is a combination of the 难 + Verb pattern and the verb 怪, meaning "to blame." In this case, the meaning is totally different. Although it's not as common and you shouldn't need to worry about it too much, we include it here because if you ever run into and think that 难怪 can only ever have one meaning, it can totally through you for a loop.

Structure

(这也 +) 难怪 + [specific person/people]

Examples

• 难怪 他，他 还 是 个 孩子 呢，什么 都 不 懂。Don't blame him. He's just a kid. He doesn't know better.
• 这 也 难怪你，第 一 次 到 这 个 地方 还 不 了解 这里 的 风俗。Don't blame yourself. It's your first time here, and you don't understand the customs.
• A: 他迟到了。 B: 这也难怪。 今天地铁坏了。A: He's late. B: Don't blame him. The subway broke down today.

When used in this way it expresses that the speaker assigns no blame in the situation he is describing. Sometimes the specific person undeserving of blame is mentioned directly after 难怪, as in the first two examples. Often however the context makes clear who this person is and this is not necessary, as in the final example.

See also

• "All along" with "yuanlai"

Sources and further reading

Books

• 现代汉语八百词（增订本） (pp. 239) (pp. 408) →buy
• Integrated Chinese: Level 2, Part 1 (p. 199) →buy

Dictionaries

• 现代汉语词典（第5版） (pp. 499) (pp. 981) →buy