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Chinese Character/Word:

Definition(s) for: 说来话长

Hanzi Pinyin Definition(s)
说来话长 shuō lái huà cháng - start explaining and it's a long story (idiom); complicated and not easy to express succinctly

List Ranking:

Where rank 1 is most common, and higher numbers are less common.

HSK 2 Level (2012) HSK 3 Band (2022) SUBTLEX-CH BeijingUni Global BeijingUni Weibo
- - 5,434 62,404 67,268

Individual Character Breakdown:

Simp Pinyin Eng
说 shuì- to persuade
说 shuō- to speak; to talk; to say
- to explain; to comment
- to scold; to tell off
- (bound form) theory; doctrine
说 shuō- variant of 說|说[shuo1]
来 lái- to come
- (used as a substitute for a more specific verb)
- hither (directional complement for motion toward the speaker, as in 回來|回来[hui2lai5])
- ever since (as in 自古以來|自古以来[zi4gu3 yi3lai2])
- for the past (amount of time)
- (prefix) the coming ...; the next ... (as in 來世|来世[lai2shi4])
- (between two verbs) in order to
- (after a round number) approximately
- (used after 得[de2] to indicate possibility, as in 談得來|谈得来[tan2de5lai2], or after 不[bu4] to indicate impossibility, as in 吃不來|吃不来[chi1bu5lai2])
话 huà- dialect
- language
- spoken words
- speech
- talk
- words
- conversation
- what sb said
- CL:種|种[zhong3],席[xi2],句[ju4],口[kou3],番[fan1]
话 huà- old variant of 話|话[hua4]
长 cháng- length
- long
- forever
- always
- constantly
长 zhǎng- chief
- head
- elder
- to grow
- to develop
- to increase
- to enhance

Other Words Containing 说来话长

Sorted by the 'SUBTLEX-CH' rank because that seems like the most reliable. Words without a SUBTLEX-CH rank are ignored for being too rare.

Word HSK 2 Level (2012) HSK 3 Band (2022) SUBTLEX-CH BeijingUni Global BeijingUni Weibo
说来话长 - - 5,434 62,404 67,268