Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced pan

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced pan, including 判 pàn, 盘 pán, 番 fān / pān, 叛 pàn, 潘 pān. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

To say pan, release air on the aspirated p, glide into an, and ride the tone — keep it joined as one sound.

Initial p

Start the syllable on the initial p, 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 (判 pàn, 盘 pán, 番 fān / pān, 叛 pàn, 潘 pān) and lock in their tones. 7 common characters share the sound pan, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

pan turns up here with 3 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: 番, 潘, 攀 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

番fān / pān(measure word for acts); deeds; foreign; (surname); place name 潘pān(surname)攀pānclimb up; pull

2nd tone

Taking the 2nd tone here: 盘 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

盘pánbig; wooden tray; dish; tray; to build; to check

4th tone

Taking the 4th tone here: 判, 叛, 盼 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

判pànto judge; to sentence; to discriminate; to discern 叛pànto betray; to rebel; to revolt 盼pànto hope for; to long for; to expect

Common Words With This Sound

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

判断pàn duànto judge; to determine; judgment 谈判tán pànto negotiate; negotiation; talks; conference 裁判cái pàn(law) to judge; to adjudicate; verdict; judgement 盘子pán zitray; plate; dish 光盘guāng páncompact disc (CD); DVD; CD-ROM 键盘jiàn pánkeyboard 番茄fān qiétomato 翻番fān fānto double; to increase by a certain number of times 三番五次sān fān wǔ cìover and over again (idiom)背叛bèi pànto betray

Characters

7 common characters in this group.

Character#1 判 pànto judge; to sentence; to discriminate; to discernTraditional: 判 Character#2 盘 pánbig; wooden tray; dish; tray; to build; to checkTraditional: 盤 Character#3 番 fān / pān(measure word for acts); deeds; foreign; (surname); place nameTraditional: 番 Character#4 叛 pànto betray; to rebel; to revoltTraditional: 叛 Character#5 潘 pān(surname)Traditional: 潘 Character#6 盼 pànto hope for; to long for; to expectTraditional: 盼 Character#7 攀 pānclimb up; pullTraditional: 攀