Expressing "no wonder"
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Level
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Similar to
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Used for
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Keywords
怪不得 (guàibude) 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 (nánguài) is another way to express exactly the same thing, in a slightly more informal way.
Contents
Structure
怪不得 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 can be replaced with 难怪 in the structure without altering its meaning.
Reason ，怪不得 / 难怪 + Observation
or
怪不得 / 难怪 + Observation ，原来 + Reason
Examples
- 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.
- 老板 过年 要 发 红包 ，难怪 大家 最近 都 这么 开心 。 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 。 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 。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 。No wonder he hasn't told me. It turns out that he doesn't want me to worry about this.
the Other Meaning of 难怪
This usage 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 ( + Person)
Examples
- 这也 难怪 他 ，他 这么 小 。Don't blame him. He's so young.
- 这也 难怪 大家 ，是 我们 通知 晚 了 。Don't blame everybody. It was a short notice.
- 这 也 难怪 ，你们 第 一 次 来 ，还 不 了解 这里 的 风俗 。Don't blame yourselves. It's your first time here, and you don't understand the customs.
- A: 他 迟到 了。 A: He's late.
- B: 这 也 难怪 他 。 今天 地铁 坏 了。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
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
