膽 (dǎn) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

膽

dǎn[dan3]Tone 3

gall bladder, courage, guts

HSK 5

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胆

Guru Deep Dive

English · gall bladder, courage, guts

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:9

Writing Balance Rule: The left component (Flesh/Moon radical) is narrower and slightly taller, while the right component (Hàn) occupies more horizontal width and houses the final strokes.

Simplification Logic: Simplified from 膽 to 胆 by replacing the complex right-side phonetic component (詹 zhān) with a simpler phonetic radical component (旦 dàn).

1. Meaning

gall bladder

couragegutsgallinner container (such as the bladder of a football or inner container of a thermos)

NounNeutral#anatomy#personality#emotions

Sample Usage

他这个人很有胆量。
tā zhè gè rén hěn yǒu dǎn liàng.
He is a person of great courage.
胆小鬼
dǎn xiǎo guǐ
Coward (literally: timid ghost)

2. Sound

/[tan³⁵]/Tone: 35

膽

dǎndan3

ˇ(214)

=dǎn

Initial Consonant

Type: Unaspirated Alveolar

Sounds like: d sound in English 'dog'

Unaspirated

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

Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge behind the upper front teeth.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -a vowel group

Sounds like: -an rhymes with 'run' minus the r, or like 'on' spoken openly

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

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

Tone

T3 (214)

2 → 1 → 4 (214)

3rd Tone (Low-Dipping)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 3 starts moderately low, dips down, and rises sharply, similar to asking 'Really?' in English with disbelief.

Sandhi: When followed by another 3rd tone syllable, dǎn shifts to a 2nd tone (rising 35), though underlyingly it is 3rd tone.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the low dipping base before the rise with a flat 1st tone if spoken too quickly.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A quick upward head nod or upward hand sweep matching the rising pitch from low to high.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 9 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The left component (Flesh/Moon radical) is narrower and slightly taller, while the right component (Hàn) occupies more horizontal width and houses the final strokes.

Simplification Logic: Simplified from 膽 to 胆 by replacing the complex right-side phonetic component (詹 zhān) with a simpler phonetic radical component (旦 dàn).

4. Components

Radical 月 · Meat/Flesh Radical (月 - ròuyù (flesh, body parts)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 月 (Indicates body parts or organs (flesh/meat radical variant ⺼))

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

Flesh (⺼) combined with dawn/daybreak (旦) creates an organ associated with waking up courage inside the body.

⺼ Flesh/organ indicator
旦 Phonetic clue providing the sound 'dàn'

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

11· Phonetic Root: 詹 (zhān)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Combined the flesh radical (⺼) representing internal organs with 旦 (dàn) which provided the phonetic pronunciation and a sense of clarity or exposure.

Semantic Evolution: Originally referred strictly to the anatomical gall bladder. Because traditional Chinese medicine associated the gall bladder with courage and decisiveness, the meaning naturally extended to 'guts' and 'bravery'.

In traditional Chinese culture, a person with a 'large gall bladder' (大胆) is considered exceptionally brave.

6. Sinosphere

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: タン (tan) / Kun: きも (kimo)

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

담

Sound Shift Bridge: Matches initial d- sound correspondences in borrowing roots.

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

Inside your body's FLESH (⺼), right at the DAWN (旦) of a scary battle, your GALL BLADDER gives you the COURAGE to face the day.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

但

dànbut, howeverUses person radical (亻) instead of flesh radical (⺼).

担

dānto carry, burdenUses hand radical (扌) instead of flesh radical (⺼).

妲

dáDaji (historical figure)Uses female radical (女) instead of flesh radical (⺼).

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

但(dàn)

但 means 'but' and features the human radical (亻), whereas 胆 means courage/gall bladder and features the flesh radical (⺼).

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

他這個人很有[___]量，什麼都不怕。

Clue: dǎn

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the left-side flesh radical (⺼) with the moon or sun radicals, or confusing the phonetic component 旦 with similar characters like 早.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: What does the character 胆 mean when it appears in anatomy or psychological traits?

Production: How do you write the character for 'courage/gall bladder' (dǎn) using the flesh radical and phonetic component?

膽dǎngall bladder, courage, guts

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