爛 (làn) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

爛

làn[lan4]Tone 4

rotten, soft, mushy, messy

HSK 5

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烂

Guru Deep Dive

English · rotten, soft, mushy, messy

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:17

Writing Balance Rule: The left radical (火) must be narrower and compressed to leave ample room for the complex right phonetic component (蘭), maintaining an even vertical centerline.

Simplification Logic: Simplified from the traditional 爛 by replacing the complex upper grass radical and middle structures of the right-hand side with a simplified form, while retaining the fire radical (火) on the left.

1. Meaning

rotten or decomposed; worn out

soft and mushy from overcookingmessy or chaoticutterly or thoroughly (extent)

Adjective / VerbNeutral / Colloquial#condition#quality#decomposition

Sample Usage

苹果烂了。
píngguǒ làn le.
The apple is rotten.
这件衣服穿烂了。
zhè jiàn yīfu chuān làn le.
This piece of clothing is worn out from wearing.

2. Sound

/[län⁵¹]/Tone: 51

爛

lànlan4

`(51)

=làn

Initial Consonant

Type: Alveolar Lateral

Sounds like: l sound as in 'love'

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Air flows freely around both sides of tongue.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge just behind the upper front teeth.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -a vowel group

Sounds like: -an rhymes with 'un' in 'bund'

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ahn'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T4 (51)

5 → 1 (51)

4th Tone (High-Falling)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 starts high and drops abruptly, identical to a sharp, authoritative command like 'Stop!' in English.

Sandhi: When followed by another Tone 4 syllable, it shortens to a half-falling pitch (52), but retains its downward directional trajectory.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the low dipping Tone 3 (lǎn) with the sharp falling Tone 4 (làn). Remember that làn falls aggressively from the start.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A swift, sharp karate chop downward from head height to chest level, matching Tone 4's high-to-low trajectory.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 17 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The left radical (火) must be narrower and compressed to leave ample room for the complex right phonetic component (蘭), maintaining an even vertical centerline.

4. Components

Radical 火 · Fire Radical (fire, heat, burning)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 火 (Indicates destruction by heat, overcooking, or decay producing a ruined state.)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 兰 (original sound: lán)

Fire (火) combined with the phonetic element lán (兰) gives us làn. Imagine cooking something over an open flame until it is literally burned and ruined into a soft, mushy mess.

火 fire / heat indicator
兰 phonetic clue for lán sound

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

9· Phonetic Root: 闌 ()

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally combined elements indicating fire and decomposition or over-boiling, reflecting food cooked down past the point of recognition.

Semantic Evolution: Shifted from literal overcooked food and burning to general decay (rotten fruit), and further extended metaphorically to messy situations, worn-out items, and bad quality.

In classical texts, it frequently described meat boiled until it fell completely apart.

6. Sinosphere

🇻🇳

Sino-Vietnamese

lạn

Matches the Vietnamese heavy dot tone (nặng) or falling-rising patterns depending on historical derivation, representing a sharp abrupt stop.

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: ラン (ran) / Kun: ただ.れる (tada.reru)

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

란

Sound Shift Bridge: The initial 'l' and final '-an' remain remarkably stable across East Asian linguistic strata.

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

A raging FIRE (火) burns under an ORCHID (兰), cooking the stew so long that the vegetables become completely ROTTEN and mushy (làn).

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

栏

lánfence / railingUses the wood radical (木) instead of fire (火).

拦

lánto block / to obstructUses the hand radical (扌) for physical action.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

兰(lán)

兰 is just the simple orchid plant without the fire radical on the left.

栏(lán)

栏 features the wooden fence radical (木), whereas 烂 features the fire radical (火).

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

這個蘋果放久了，已經[___]了。

Clue: làn

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing tone 4 (làn) with tone 3 (lǎn) or misapplying the radical, writing the wood radical (木) instead of the fire radical (火).

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see '烂', what does it mean regarding food or condition?

Production: How do you write the character for 'rotten / mushy' pronounced 'làn'?

爛lànrotten, soft, mushy, messy

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