捐 (juān) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

捐

juān[juan1]Tone 1

to donate, contribute, or relinquish

HSK 6

Guru Deep Dive

English · to donate, contribute, or relinquish

Cached lesson

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:10

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (扌 hand radical) is narrower and compressed, while the right side (蜄/𢆶 phonetic portion) is wider and balanced to keep the overall character stable and square.

1. Meaning

to donate or contribute money or goods for a cause

to relinquish or abandontax or levy (bound form)

VerbNeutral#finance#charity#society

Sample Usage

他决定把积蓄捐给灾区。
tā jué dìng bǎ jī xù juān gěi zāi qū.
He decided to donate his savings to the disaster-stricken area.
捐款
juān kuǎn
to contribute money / donation

2. Sound

/[tɕy̯än⁵⁵]/Tone: 55

捐

juānjuan1

¯(55)

=juān

Initial Consonant

Type: Unaspirated Alveolo-Palatal

Sounds like: j sound like the 'j' in jeep but articulated further forward with the blade of the tongue against the back of the lower teeth

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: No air puff. Lips spread wide like smiling.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Blade of the tongue touches the back of the lower front teeth while the middle of the tongue rises toward the hard palate.

Final Rhyme

uan

Vowel Group: -a vowel group

Sounds like: -üan rhymes with the 'u-an' in yuan

Note: Written as 'uan', pronounced as rounded 'üan' [y].

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

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

Abbreviated Rhyme Rule: üan is written as üan after j, q, x, where the umlaut is omitted by rule.

Tone

T1 (55)

5 → 5 (55)

1st Tone (High-Flat)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 1 stays flat and high at the top of your vocal range, similar to singing a sustained high note.

👂

Listening trap: Learners often mistake the palatal 'j-' for a retroflex 'zh-' or confuse the 'üan' final with regular '-uan'.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Tone 1 is a high, steady flat line, like holding a high musical note without any dipping or rising.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 10 strokes

4. Components

Radical 扌 · Hand Radical (Hand action or physical manipulation)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 扌 (Indicates an action performed with the hand, such as giving away or letting go)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 脧 (original sound: juan)

A hand (扌) reaches out to let go of or give away something valuable, signifying a donation or relinquishment.

扌 Hand radical (action)
肙 Phonetic and structural component providing the 'juan' sound

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

10· Phonetic Root: 肙 (yuān)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Combined from the hand radical (扌) showing physical action and an ancient phonetic component (肙) indicating the sound 'juan'. Originally referred to cutting or reducing, which extended to parting with possessions or money.

Semantic Evolution: From an original sense of cutting away or reducing, it evolved to mean giving up, parting with, and finally donating or contributing to a cause.

Historically, the character was also used to refer to government exactions or levies extracted from citizens.

6. Sinosphere

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

With your own HAND (扌), you carefully let go of your wealth, UN-coiling it to DONATE (juān) to charity.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

绢

juànsilkUses the silk radical (纟) instead of the hand radical (扌).

涓

juāntrickling streamUses the water radical (氵) instead of the hand radical (扌).

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

圈(quān)

圈 has an enclosure radical (囗) meaning circle or pen, whereas 捐 has a hand radical (扌) meaning to donate.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

他决定把一部分收入[___]给希望工程。

Clue: juān

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the hand radical (扌) with the water radical (氵), which turns the character into 涓 (trickling stream).

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see 捐, what action involving the hand does it represent?

Production: How do you write the character for 'to donate' (juān), and what radical does it start with?

捐juānto donate, contribute, or relinquish

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