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.

Structure

Reason ，难怪 / 怪不得 + Observation

or

难怪 / 怪不得 + [Observation] ，原来 + Reason

Examples

• 小张 请假 了，难怪 今天 没有 看到 他 。Xiǎo Zhāng qǐngjià le, nánguài jīntiān méiyǒu kàndào tā.Little Zhang asked for some vacation time, no wonder I haven't seen him today.
• 老板 过年 要 发 红包 ，难怪 大家 最近 都 这么 开心 。Lǎobǎn guònián yào fā hóngbāo, nánguài dàjiā zuìjìn dōu zhème kāixīn. Boss is going to give out red envelopes. No wonder everyone looks so happy recently.
• 你 的 手机 丢了 ？难怪 你的 手机 一直 打不通 。 Nǐ de shǒujī diūle? Nánguài nǐ de shǒujī yīzhí dǎ butōng . Your cell phone is lost? No wonder I couldn't get through.
• 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 没 告诉 我 ，原来 是 不 想 让 我 担心 。Nánguài tā méi gàosu wǒ, yuánlái shì bù xiǎng ràng wǒ dānxīn.No wonder he hasn't told me. It turns out that he doesn't want me to worry about this.

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 throw you for a loop.

Structure

(这也 +) 难怪 + [Specific Person / People]

Examples

• 这也 难怪 他，还 是 个 孩子 呢，什么 都 不 懂。 Zhè yě nánguài 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，他 昨天 才 给 你 回复。 Zhè yě nánguài nǐ, tā zuótiān cái gěi nǐ huífù.Don't blame yourself. He just replied to you yesterday.
• 这 也 难怪，你们 第 一 次 到 这 个 地方 还 不 了解 这里 的 风俗。Zhè yě nánguài, nǐmen dì-yī cì dào zhège dìfang hái bù liǎojiě zhèlǐ de fēngsú.Don't blame yourselves. It's your first time here, and you don't understand the customs.

• A: 他 迟到 了。 A: Tā chídào le.A: He's late.
• B: 这 也 难怪。 今天 地铁 坏 了。B: Zhè yě nánguài. Jīntiān dìtiě huài le.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 last three examples.

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