但 (dàn) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

但

dàn[dan4]Tone 4

but, yet, however

HSK 2

Guru Deep Dive

English · but, yet, however

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:7

Writing Balance Rule: The left component (亻) occupies about one-third of the width, while the right component (旦) claims the remaining two-thirds. Keep the horizontal lines balanced and parallel.

1. Meaning

but; yet; however

merelyonlyjust

Conjunction / AdverbNeutral / Standard#conjunction#transition#logic

Sample Usage

他虽然累，但很高兴。
Tā suīrán lèi, dàn hěn gāoxìng.
Although he is tired, he is very happy.
这件事不大，但很重要。
Zhè jiàn shì bú dà, dàn hěn zhòngyào.
This matter is not big, but it is very important.

2. Sound

/[tan⁵¹]/Tone: 51

但

dàndan4

`(51)

=dàn

Initial Consonant

Type: Unaspirated Alveolar

Sounds like: English d sound

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: No puff of air. Tissue remains still (sounds like English 't' in 'stop').

Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip touching the upper alveolar ridge behind the teeth

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -a vowel group

Sounds like: -an rhymes with 'on' in 'con' or 'run' with a nasal ending

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ahn'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T4 (51)

5 → 1 (51)

4th Tone (High-Falling)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 starts high and drops abruptly, exactly like saying 'No!' or 'Stop!' in English.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the dental initial 'd' with the retroflex 'zh' or confusing tone 4 with tone 1.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A sharp downward chop with the hand, mirroring a firm statement of contrast.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 7 strokes

4. Components

Radical 亻 · Person radical (Human or person)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 亻 (Relates the concept to human behavior or perspective.)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 旦 (original sound: dan)

A person (亻) stands at sunrise (旦), facing a sudden turning point or exception in their day.

亻 Person radical
旦 Dawn / sun rising above the horizon

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

14· Phonetic Root: 旦 (dàn)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Combined from the person radical (亻) for human context and 旦 (dàn, dawn) which provides the phonetic pronunciation and a sense of clarity or shift.

Semantic Evolution: Originally carrying phonetic and related elements, it evolved to represent the abstract conjunction 'but' or 'yet' in classical and modern Chinese.

Extremely common functional word bridging contrastive clauses in Chinese prose.

6. Sinosphere

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: タン / Kun: ただ

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

단

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

A PERSON (亻) looks out at DAWN (旦), BUT the weather has suddenly changed from sunny to stormy!

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

旦

dànDawn / morningWithout the person radical, it simply depicts the sun rising over the horizon.

担

dānTo carry / burdenReplaces the right phonetic with hand/carrying elements or adds semantic weight.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

得(dé / děi)

Has a '彳' and '寸' on the right, used as a structural particle or verb for getting, whereas 但 is strictly for contrast.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

这本书很好看，[___]太贵了。

Clue: dàn

Common Learner Pitfall

Placing 但 incorrectly in a sentence structure where '虽然...但...' (although... but...) is required, sometimes accidentally doubling conjunctions incorrectly.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see 但, what common contrast conjunction does it represent in English?

Production: How do you write the conjunction meaning 'but' or 'however' with 7 strokes?

但dànbut, yet, however

Speed:

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