容易
easy; likely to
róngyì
What does 容易 mean?
容易 (róngyì) means 'easy' — but also 'prone to / likely to,' which is the meaning English speakers usually miss. As 'easy,' it works just like English: 这件事很容易 ('this thing is easy'). As 'prone to,' it appears before a verb: 容易感冒 ('prone to catching colds'), 容易忘 ('easy to forget / forgetful'), 容易生气 ('quick to anger').
This second use is hugely common in spoken Chinese and has no clean one-word English equivalent — translators reach for 'easily' or 'tends to.' The opposite is 难 (nán, hard / difficult). For 'not easy,' both 不容易 and 难 work, but 不容易 often carries a tone of 'it wasn't easy / it was a struggle' rather than just neutral 'hard.'
Character breakdown
to contain; to hold; to allow
easy; to change
Memory hook: Both characters can mean 'easy / yielding' on their own — together they reinforce: easy.
Example sentences
这个问题很容易。
Zhège wèntí hěn róngyì.
This question is very easy.
spoken
学中文不容易。
Xué Zhōngwén bù róngyì.
Learning Chinese isn't easy.
spoken
冬天容易感冒，多穿点衣服。
Dōngtiān róngyì gǎnmào, duō chuān diǎn yīfu.
It's easy to catch a cold in winter — wear more clothes.
spoken
我容易忘事，所以喜欢写下来。
Wǒ róngyì wàng shì, suǒyǐ xǐhuan xiě xiàlái.
I tend to forget things, so I like to write them down.
spoken
找到工作不太容易。
Zhǎodào gōngzuò bú tài róngyì.
It's not that easy to find a job.
neutral
Common phrases with 容易
Hear it in real Fluentide episodes
容易 appears in 1 podcast episode at natural native speed, with full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.