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. 怪不得 (guàibude) is another way to express exactly the same thing, in a slightly more informal way.

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.

Short Structure

难怪 / 怪不得 + ([observation])

Short Structure Examples

• 他 和 女朋友 分手 了，难怪 他 最近 一直 不 高兴。Tā hé nǚpéngyou fēnshǒule, nánguài tā zuìjìn yīzhí bù gāoxìng.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。Xiǎo Zhāng qǐngjià le, nánguài jīntiān méiyǒu kàn dào tā.Little Zhang asked for some vacation time, no wonder I haven't seen him today.
• 难怪！Nánguài!No wonder!

Longer Structure

难怪 / 怪不得 + [observation]，原来 + [reason]

Longer Structure Examples

• 难怪 老板 生气 了，原来 那 个 大 客户 取消 了 订单。Nánguài lǎobǎn shēngqì le, yuánlái nàge dà kèhù qǔxiāo le dìngdān.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。Nánguài zhèlǐ rén zhème duō, yuánlái zài dǎzhé.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。Nánguài tā tiāntiān chídào, yuánlái tā yào zìjǐ zhàogù háizi.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。Nánguài tā, tā háishì gè háizi ne, shénme dōu bù dǒng.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。Zhè yě nánguài nǐ, dì yī cì dào zhè gè dìfāng hái bù liǎojiě zhèlǐ de fēngsú.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: Tā chídàole. B: Zhè yě nánguài. Jīntiān dìtiě huài le.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