Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced pian

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced pian, including 片 piān / piàn, 篇 piān, 偏 piān, 骗 piàn, 扁 biǎn / piān. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

To say pian, release air on the aspirated p, glide into ian, 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 ian — keep them joined instead of sounding out separate English letters.

Final ian

Settle the final ian into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.

Study Tip

Start with the most common characters (片 piān / piàn, 篇 piān, 偏 piān, 骗 piàn, 扁 biǎn / piān) and lock in their tones. 5 common characters share the sound pian, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

pian 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: 片, 篇, 偏 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

片piān / piàndisc; sheet; a slice; piece; flake; thin 篇piānsheet; piece of writing; (a measure word); chapter; article 偏piānone-sided; to lean; to slant; prejudiced; inclined to one side

3rd tone

Taking the 3rd tone here: 扁 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

扁biǎn / piānflat; tablet; inscription; (surname); small boat; Polygonum aviculare

4th tone

Taking the 4th tone here: 骗 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

骗piànto cheat; to swindle; to deceive; to fool

Common Words With This Sound

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

照片zhào piànphotograph 图片tú piànpicture; photograph 影片yǐng piàna copy of a film; film; motion picture; movie 篇幅piān fulength (of a piece of writing); space occupied on a printed page 开篇kāi piānstart of literary work; opening song of ballad in Tanci style 弹词长篇cháng piānlengthy (report or speech)偏偏piān piān(indicating that sth turns out just the opposite of what one would wish) unfortunately; as it happened; (indicating that sth is the opposite of what would be normal or reasonable) stubbornly; contrarily 偏见piān jiànprejudice; bias 偏僻piān pìremote; desolate; far from the city 骗子piàn ziswindler; a cheat

Characters

5 common characters in this group.

Character#1 片 piān / piàndisc; sheet; a slice; piece; flake; thinTraditional: 片 Character#2 篇 piānsheet; piece of writing; (a measure word); chapter; articleTraditional: 篇 Character#3 偏 piānone-sided; to lean; to slant; prejudiced; inclined to one sideTraditional: 偏 Character#4 骗 piànto cheat; to swindle; to deceive; to foolTraditional: 騙 Character#5 扁 biǎn / piānflat; tablet; inscription; (surname); small boat; Polygonum aviculareTraditional: 扁