Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced shan
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced shan, including 山 shān, 单 dān / chán / shàn, 善 shàn, 闪 shǎn, 扇 shān / shàn. Compare tones, meanings…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
shan begins with the tongue curled up and back for sh; let it slide straight into an and carry the tone across the whole sound, rather than spelling out English letters.
Initial sh
Curl the tongue back for sh. English speakers often make it too flat.
Final an
Keep an short and open; do not turn it into ang.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (山 shān, 单 dān / chán / shàn, 善 shàn, 闪 shǎn, 扇 shān / shàn) and lock in their tones. 9 common characters share the sound shan, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
shan turns up here with 4 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: 山, 单, 扇… (4 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
2nd tone
Taking the 2nd tone here: 禅 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 闪, 陕 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 善, 擅 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing shan inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
9 common characters in this group.