难言之隐
nán yán zhī yǐn
something one cannot bring oneself to talk about
Character by character
难nán
hard
hard
言yán
speak
speak
之zhī
’s
’s
隐yǐn
secret
secret
Example
他突然辞职，大家都猜他一定有什么难言之隐。
He suddenly resigned, and everyone guessed he must have some reason he couldn’t talk about.
Tone: neutral.
Usage and origin
Used of a painful private reason (有难言之隐, 说出自己的难言之隐) and, half jokingly, of embarrassing illnesses, the stock phrase of adverts for such remedies. Sympathetic rather than critical: the person keeps silent because speaking would hurt.
Learn this in Lesson 160 · HSK 7–9: 艾滋病：检测与偏见 (HIV: testing and prejudice)
A dialogue, a reading, word cards with audio and a drill that uses it, in Learn Chinese with Bao. The first lessons of every level are free.
Open the lesson →