Meaning
dry; to concern; shield; to work; to do; to manage
Chinese: 干燥；读 gàn 时表示做事。
Hear the Four Tones
The same syllable “gan” becomes a different word in each tone. 干 is the 1st tone. Tap any tone to hear a native voice and see its pitch shape.
Stroke Order
Tap Animate to watch the strokes in order, or Practice to trace it yourself.
Common Words
- 干净gān jìngclean; neat
- 干什么gàn shén mewhat are you doing?; what's he up to?
- 干杯gān bēito drink a toast; Cheers! (proposing a toast); Here's to you!; Bottoms up!
- 干活儿gàn huó rcolloquial (-r) form of 干活
- 饼干bǐng gānbiscuit; cracker; cookie
Example Sentence
衣服已经晒干了。Yī fu yǐ jīng shài gān le.The clothes have already dried.
衣服Yī fuclothes已经yǐ jīngalready晒干shài gānto dry in the sun了le(completed action)。
Go deeper
Where this character comes from
Originally a pictograph of a forked shield/weapon (‘to offend, concern’). In simplified Chinese it also covers 乾 ‘dry’ (gān: 干净) and 幹 ‘to do; trunk; capable’ (gàn: 干活, 干部).
A way to remember it
gān = dry (干净); gàn = to do / trunk (干活, 干部).