Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced wan
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced wan, including 完 wán, 万 wàn, 晚 wǎn, 湾 wān, 玩 wán / wàn. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
For wan, let the w- glide flow into an without a break, holding the tone over the joined syllable.
Initial w
Start the syllable on the initial w, 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 (完 wán, 万 wàn, 晚 wǎn, 湾 wān, 玩 wán / wàn) and lock in their tones. 10 common characters share the sound wan, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
wan 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: 湾, 弯 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
2nd tone
Taking the 2nd tone here: 完, 玩, 顽… (4 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 晚, 碗, 挽 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 万 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing wan inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
10 common characters in this group.