nguy nan
Definition
- Adjective:
- Perilous; dangerous and difficult: Describes a situation, condition, or circumstance that involves both significant danger and hardship, posing a serious threat and being extremely challenging to navigate or overcome.
Usage Examples
- Adjective:
- Tình hình ở vùng chiến sự vô cùng nguy nan. (The situation in the war zone is extremely perilous.)
- Họ đã vượt qua một chặng đường nguy nan. (They overcame a perilous journey.)
- Bệnh nhân đang trong tình trạng nguy nan. (The patient is in a critical condition.)
Advanced Usage
- The term is often used in formal or literary contexts to emphasize the gravity and complexity of a threat, beyond simple danger.
- It can describe both physical and abstract situations, such as a dangerous mission, a critical health condition, or a precarious political situation.
Variants and Related Words
Nguy hiểm (adj): Dangerous, hazardous. This is a more common and general term for danger, without the strong connotation of accompanying difficulty.
- Đường trơn rất nguy hiểm. (The slippery road is very dangerous.)
Hiểm nguy (adj): A synonym, also meaning perilous or fraught with danger. The word order is reversed.
- Một nhiệm vụ đầy hiểm nguy. (A mission full of peril.)
Synonyms
- Perilous: Full of grave risk or danger.
- Hazardous: Involving risk or danger.
- Precarious: Not securely held or in position; dangerously likely to fall or collapse. (Often implies instability.)
- Critical: Of the greatest importance to the way things might happen; at a point of crisis. (Especially for situations.)
Related Idioms
Ngàn cân treo sợi tóc: (Literal: A thousand catties hanging by a single hair) Meaning a situation of extreme peril or hanging by a thread.
- Tình thế nguy nan như ngàn cân treo sợi tóc. (The situation is as perilous as a thousand catties hanging by a single hair.)
Lâm vào cảnh nguy nan: To fall into a perilous situation.
- Công ty đang lâm vào cảnh nguy nan. (The company is falling into a perilous situation.)