Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced san
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced san, including 三 sān, 散 sǎn / sàn, 伞 sǎn. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words, and example sentences.
How to Pronounce This Syllable
To say san, use a flat-tongue s, slide into an, and lay the tone on top — it is one sound, not the letters read separately.
Initial s
Keep the tongue flat and the sound clean.
Final an
Keep an short and open; do not turn it into ang.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (三 sān, 散 sǎn / sàn, 伞 sǎn) and lock in their tones. 3 common characters share the sound san, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
san 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: 三 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 散, 伞 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing san inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
3 common characters in this group.