HanziGuru.晚 · wǎn
晚
wǎn[wan3]Tone 3

evening, night, late

HSK 1
Guru Deep Dive

English · evening, night, late

Cached lesson
1 / 1
Topology:Left-right
Strokes:11
Writing Balance Rule: The left radical (日) takes up about one-third of the space, while the right phonetic component (免) takes up the remaining two-thirds, keeping both sides balanced in height.
1. Meaning

evening or night

late in timeyounger or later generation
noun / adjectiveNeutral#time#daily life#schedule
Sample Usage
  • 昨天晚上
    zuótiān wǎnshang
    last night
  • 你今天来得很晚。
    Nǐ jīntiān lái de hěn wǎn.
    You came very late today.
2. Sound
/[wan²¹⁴]/Tone: 214
晚
wǎnwan3
++
ˇ(214)
=wǎn
Initial Consonant
w
Type: Labio-Velar Glide (Zero Initial)
Sounds like: w (like English w sound)
Unaspirated
Airflow Tactile Test: Round lips tightly before gliding into vowel.
Tongue & Mouth Position: Lips rounded softly like in English 'wet' or 'water', moving quickly into the vowel.
Final Rhyme
an
Vowel Group: -a vowel group
Sounds like: -an rhymes with 'on' or 'un' in some dialects, but sounds like the 'a' in 'father' plus 'n'.
Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ahn'.
Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.
Tone
T3 (214)
3rd Tone (Low-Dipping)
Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 3 dips low and rises, similar to saying 'Really?' in English with disbelief.
Sandhi: When followed by another 3rd tone, wǎn shifts to a 2nd tone (35).
👂
Listening trap: Do not confuse with wán (play/finish) which uses Tone 2 (rising).
👋
Physical Tone Gesture: Trace a checkmark in the air: dip down from medium pitch to low, then rise up high.
3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 11 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The left radical (日) takes up about one-third of the space, while the right phonetic component (免) takes up the remaining two-thirds, keeping both sides balanced in height.

4. Components

Radical 日 · Sun Radical (sun, day, time)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 日 (Indicates time or day, pointing to the sun setting into evening.)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 免 (original sound: miǎn / wǎn)

As the sun (日) sets and you are freed (免) from your daytime duties, it becomes evening (晚).

  • 日 sun / time
  • 免 to avoid / phonetic clue
5. History
Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Combined from the sun (日) symbol representing daytime and a phonetic element (免) that originally implied escaping or reaching the end of something.

Semantic Evolution: Originally referred to the late part of the day when the sun is finishing its journey, later extended to mean 'late' in general.

  • The sun radical anchors almost all Chinese characters dealing with time, hours, and brightness.
6. Sinosphere
🇯🇵
Kanji (Japanese)
On: バン / Kun: くれ
7. Memory
Vivid Mnemonic Story

When the SUN (日) sets and work is DONE (免 - sound-alike), it is late in the evening (晚).

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
挽
wǎnto pull / drawReplaces the sun radical with the hand radical (扌), meaning to pull with your hand.
兔
tùrabbitVery similar to 免, but represents a rabbit with a short tail.
Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)
完(wán)
完 uses the roof radical (宀) on top, meaning 'finished/complete', whereas 晚 uses the sun radical (日) for 'evening'.
8. Mastery
Active Recall Challenge
我今天回家很[___]。
Clue: wǎn
Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the right side component (免) with the character for rabbit (兔) or writing the sun radical incorrectly on the left.

Memory Prompts
Recognition: What does 晚 mean when you see it in 晚上 (wǎnshang)?
Production: How do you write the character for 'late/evening' (wǎn) combining sun and the phonetic element?
Real-World Video Context

Watch authentic native speakers pronounce and explain this word in real-world YouTube videos.

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