How to use Chinese word “难怪”

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

"难怪"可用于表达说话者认为某事不足为奇的意思。它可单独使用，也可用于各种不同的结构。"怪不得"是同一意思的另一种表达，用于较为不正式的场合。

难怪 as "it is not surprising that"

Here 难怪 is used to convey the speaker's lack of amazement at a situation. It is used in much the same way as 怪不得, which can replace 难怪 in the structure without altering its meaning.

这里的"难怪"是用于表示说话者在某种情况下没有表现出惊讶。它和"怪不得"使用方式差不多一致，在这个结构里"难怪"可以被替代且不会改变原意。

难怪 / 怪不得 + ([observation])

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.

难怪！

nánguài!

No wonder!

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.

你的手机丢了？难怪我打不通你手机。

nǐ de shǒujī diūle? ,nánguài nǐde shǒujī yīzhī dǎbùtōng .

You cellphone is lost? No wonder I couldn't get through.

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

难怪老板这么生气，原来那个大客户取消了_订单。

nánguài lǎobǎn zhème shēngqì, yuánlái nàge dà kèhù qǔxiāo le dìngdān.

No wonder the boss is so 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.

难怪他天天都迟到，原来他要自己照顾孩子。

nánguài tā tiāntiān dōu chídào, yuánlái tā yào zìjǐ zhàogù háizi.

No wonder he's late every day. It turns out he's raising his kids by himself.

难怪他一直都不告诉我，原来是不想让我担心。

nánguài tā yīzhí dōu méi gàosù wǒ.Yuánlái shì bùxiǎng ràng wǒ dānxīn.

No wonder he hasn't told me.It turns out that he doesn't want me to worry about this.

难怪这么多人都想认识她，原来她爸是市长。

nánguài zhème duō rén dōu xiǎng rènshi tā,yuánlái tā bà shì shìzhǎng.

No wonder so many people wan to meet her.It turned out that her father is the mayor.

难怪 as "is not to be blamed"

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, if you ever run into and think that 难怪 can only ever have one meaning, it can totally get you confused.

这种情况下，意思完全不一样。虽然这种用法比较少见，你也无需太过担忧，不过要是你真的遇到了，而且还认为"难怪"只有一种意思的话，你就会迷惑。

(这也 +) 难怪 + [specific person/people]

这也难怪他，还是个孩子呢，什么都不懂。

zhè yě nánguàitā, 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 zhè ge dìfāng hái bù liǎojiě zhèlǐ de fēngsú.

Don't blame yourselves. It's your first time here, and you don't understand the customs.

这也难怪，他们工作这么累，工资还这么低。

zhè yě nánguài, tāmen gōngzuò zhème lèi, gōngzī hái zhème dī.

Don't blame them. Their job is so tiring but they get such a low pay.

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, as in the last two examples.

这种用法表示说话者在所述情况下没有责怪当事人。有时该当事人不承担"难怪"一词之后所说到的过失，就如前两个例子。多数情况语境会解释清楚当事人的身份，正如后面的两个例子。

Translated from: AllSetLearning