Meaning
to look after; to take care of; to watch; to guard; it depends; think
Chinese: 观看、照看或认为。
Hear the Four Tones
The same syllable “kan” becomes a different word in each tone. 看 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
- 看到kàn dàoto see
- 看见kàn jiànto see; to catch sight of
- 好看hǎo kàngood-looking; nice-looking; (of a movie, book, TV show etc) good; in an embarrassing situation
- 看病kàn bìngto visit a doctor; to see a patient
- 看法kàn fǎway of looking at a thing; view; opinion
Example Sentence
我喜欢看书。Wǒ xǐ huan kàn shū.I like reading books.
我WǒI喜欢xǐ huanto like看书kàn shūto read。
Go deeper
Where this character comes from
A hand (手, slightly flattened on top) held above an eye (目): shading the eyes to gaze into the distance. It means ‘to look / watch’.
A way to remember it
A hand over the eyes, peering into the distance — to look.
Easy to confuse with
- 着‘-ing / on’: also built over 目, but the top is 羊-like, not a hand.