Learn Chinese Characters

Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced lan

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced lan, including 兰 lán, 蓝 lán / la, 烂 làn, 览 lǎn, 拦 lán. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

For lan, start on l and let it run into an without pausing; keep the mouth moving and hold the tone to the end.

Initial l

Start the syllable on the initial l, 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 (兰 lán, 蓝 lán / la, 烂 làn, 览 lǎn, 拦 lán) and lock in their tones. 9 common characters share the sound lan, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

lan turns up here with 3 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.

2nd tone

Taking the 2nd tone here: 兰, 蓝, 拦… (5 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

3rd tone

Taking the 3rd tone here: 览, 懒 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

4th tone

Taking the 4th tone here: 烂, 滥 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

Common Words With This Sound

Seeing lan inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.

Characters

9 common characters in this group.