HSK 4 Adverbs
居然 / 竟然
Surprisingly with 居然/竟然
Structure 居然 / 竟然 + Verb
居然 and 竟然 (jūrán / jìngrán) express SURPRISE or disbelief: something you didn’t expect at all. 他居然忘了我的名字 = "he actually forgot my name!". They go before the verb. The two are nearly interchangeable; 竟然 sounds a touch stronger.
Examples
- 他居然忘了我的名字。
He actually forgot my name!
- 这么简单的问题他竟然不会。
Such an easy question, and he actually didn’t know it.
- 没想到他居然来了。
I never expected him to actually show up.
Levels are indicative: they follow the standard Chinese Grammar Wiki (AllSet Learning) progression, not an official HSK 3.0 mapping. We never assign levels by eye.