Writing Balance Rule: The top hand component (手) should be slightly compressed and perched gracefully on top of the bottom eye component (目), maintaining a balanced vertical center line.
1. Meaning
to look after, to guard, to watch over
to tend to a patient or childto keep watch or stand guard
VerbNeutral#action#supervision#caregiving
Sample Usage
请帮我看一下行李。
Qǐng bāng wǒ kàn yí xià xíngli.
Please help me watch my luggage.
护士在医院看病人。
Hùshi zài yīyuàn kàn bìngrén.
The nurse is taking care of patients in the hospital.
2. Sound
/[kʰän⁵⁵]/Tone: 55
看
kānkan1
|
++
¯(55)
=kān
Initial Consonant
k
Type: Aspirated Velar
Sounds like: k sound like in the English word 'kite'
Aspirated
Airflow Tactile Test: Strong gust of air from throat! Tissue held in front MUST fly forward.
Tongue & Mouth Position: Back of the tongue raised against the soft palate (velar) with a strong burst of air
Final Rhyme
an
Vowel Group: -a vowel group
Sounds like: -an rhymes with 'on' or 'un' in run, but with an 'a' vowel quality
Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ahn'.
Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.
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 or saying 'Aah' during a medical checkup.
👂
Listening trap: Confusing the first tone (high level) with the fourth tone (falling), or confusing the initial 'k' with 'g'.
👋
Physical Tone Gesture: Make a flat, high horizontal motion with your hand in front of your face, holding the pitch steady and even like a high musical note.
3. Writing
Topology: Top-bottom · Strokes: 9 strokes
Writing Balance Rule: The top hand component (手) should be slightly compressed and perched gracefully on top of the bottom eye component (目), maintaining a balanced vertical center line.
4. Components
Radical目 · Eye Radical (eye, vision)
Semantic Clue (形旁):目 (indicates vision, looking, and watching)
A hand (手 modified to 扌/𠂉) is placed horizontally right above the eye (目) to shade it while peering out into the distance to watch or guard.
𠂉 Variant shape of hand (手)
目 Eye (目)
5. History
Liushu category: Compound ideogram (会意)
Origin: Originally depicted as a hand placed horizontally above an eye in oracle bone scripts, representing the action of shading the eyes with a hand to look far away or keep watch.
Semantic Evolution: From the physical gesture of shading the eyes to look into the distance, it evolved into meanings of watching, guarding, looking after, and eventually generalized reading or seeing.
In modern Mandarin, kān usually implies guarding, tending, or looking after someone/something, whereas kàn (falling tone) means to look or read.
6. Sinosphere
🇻🇳
Sino-Vietnamese
khán
High rising tone in Sino-Vietnamese corresponds roughly to Mandarin rising or high tones depending on historical checked/unChecked entering tones.
🇯🇵
Kanji (Japanese)
On: カン (kan) / Kun: み.る (mi.ru)
🇰🇷
Hanja (Korean)
간
7. Memory
Vivid Mnemonic Story
You put your hand (𠂉) right over your eye (目) to carefully guard and look after (kān) the perimeter.
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
看
kànto look, to seeSame character, used with the fourth tone (kàn) for general seeing, reading, or visiting.
Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)
着(zhāo / zhe)
着 has a sheep/grass element or eye variation, but kān specifically pairs a hand (𠂉) over an eye (目).
8. Mastery
Active Recall Challenge
请帮我[___]一下行李，我去买张票。
Clue: kān
Common Learner Pitfall
Confusing the tone and meaning: kān (first tone) is used for guarding and looking after, whereas kàn (fourth tone) is used for looking, reading, or watching a movie.
Memory Prompts
Recognition: When you see the character 看 pronounced as kān, what does it mean in the context of guarding or nursing?
Production: How do you write the character for 'to look after / to guard' using a hand over an eye?
Real-World Video Context
Watch authentic native speakers pronounce and explain this word in real-world YouTube videos.
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看kānto look after
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