start explaining and it's a long story (idiom); complicated and not easy to express succinctly
trad. 說來話長
Also written 說來話長【shuō lái huà cháng】
Characters in this word
4说
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
to persuade
- Pinyin
- shuì
- Traditional
- 說
- Strokes
- 9
- Frequency
- 19 of 2500
来
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
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[hui2 lai5]), ever since (as in 自古以來|自古以来[zi4 gu3 yi3 lai2]), for the past (amount of time), (prefix) the coming ...; the next ... (as in 來世|来世[lai2 shi4]), (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[tan2 de5 lai2], or after 不[bu4] to indicate impossibility, as in 吃不來|吃不来[chi1 bu5 lai2])
- Pinyin
- lái
- Traditional
- 來
- Strokes
- 7
- Frequency
- 33 of 2500
话
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
dialect, language, spoken words, speech, talk, words, conversation, what sb said, CL:種|种[zhong3],席[xi2],句[ju4],口[kou3],番[fan1]
- Pinyin
- huà
- Traditional
- 話
- Strokes
- 8
- Frequency
- 516 of 2500
长
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
long, (bound form) length, (bound form) strong point; forte, (bound form) to be good at, (literary) surplus; spare (Taiwan pr. [zhang4])
- Pinyin
- cháng
- Traditional
- 長
- Strokes
- 4
- Frequency
- 1042 of 2500