Level 5 · Advanced
After much difficulty: 好不容易
Subj. + 好不容易 + 才 + Verb
好不容易 (hǎo bù róngyì) means "only after great difficulty": 我好不容易才买到票 "it took me forever, but I finally got tickets." It loves pairing with 才, which underlines how late or hard-won the result was.
Here's the trap: 好容易 means exactly the same thing. Despite appearances, neither one ever means "very easy" — both are always about struggle.
Examples
我好不容易才买到票。
我好不容易才買到票。
wǒ hǎo bù róng yì cái mǎi dào piào
It took forever, but I finally managed to get tickets.
他好不容易找到了一份工作。
tā hǎo bù róng yì zhǎo dào le yī fèn gōng zuò
After a long struggle, he finally found a job.
好不容易到了周末，好好休息一下吧。
好不容易到了週末，好好休息一下吧。
hǎo bù róng yì dào le zhōu mò hǎo hǎo xiū xi yī xià ba
The weekend is finally here — get some real rest.
我们好不容易爬到了山顶。
我們好不容易爬到了山頂。
wǒ men hǎo bù róng yì pá dào liǎo shāndǐng
We finally made it to the top of the mountain.
Common mistakes
✗ 这道题好不容易，我很快就做完了。
✓ 这道题很容易，我很快就做完了。
好不容易 never means "easy" — it always means the thing took real effort.
Related grammar points
Practice this pattern in graded stories like Can't Take It Anymore (Part 1) inside the Literate Chinese app.
