Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced yuan
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced yuan, including 原 yuán, 员 yuán, 院 yuàn, 元 yuán, 远 yuǎn. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
yuan is a whole syllable. Start with the rounded ü, slide through to an “en” ending — closer to “ywen” than to English “yuan”.
Initial y
Start the syllable on the initial y, then run straight into the final uan — keep them joined instead of sounding out separate English letters.
Final uan
Settle the final uan into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (原 yuán, 员 yuán, 院 yuàn, 元 yuán, 远 yuǎn) and lock in their tones. 16 common characters share the sound yuan, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
yuan 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: 渊, 冤 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
2nd tone
Taking the 2nd tone here: 原, 员, 元… (10 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 远 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 院, 愿, 怨 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing yuan inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
16 common characters in this group.