Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced kan
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced kan, including 看 kān / kàn, 刊 kān, 堪 kān, 砍 kǎn, 坎 kǎn. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
For kan, push a small puff of air on k, join it to an, and hold the tone over the whole syllable.
Initial k
Start the syllable on the initial k, then run straight into the final an — keep them joined instead of sounding out separate English letters.
Final an
Keep an short and open; do not turn it into ang.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (看 kān / kàn, 刊 kān, 堪 kān, 砍 kǎn, 坎 kǎn) and lock in their tones. 5 common characters share the sound kan, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
kan turns up here with 2 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.
1st tone
Taking the 1st tone here: 看, 刊, 堪 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 砍, 坎 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing kan inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
5 common characters in this group.