Read gàn, 干 means to do or to work, and it is very common in speech: 你在干什么？(nǐ zài gàn shénme?) means “What are you doing?” Read gān, it means dry, as in 干净 (gānjìng) “clean”.
Sentence #13993512 from Tatoeba · translation adapted
How 干 is built
Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.
干gāndry
一one · yī
十ten · shí
Memory aidDrawn from a forked stick used as a weapon or shield. As a simplified character it also stands for 乾 “dry” and 幹 “to do”.
How to write 干
干 3 strokes
Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.
Stroke order chart for 干 (gān). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.
干 (gān) means “dry” or “dried food”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it gān: gān with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 干 is written 乾. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type gan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 干 from the suggestions. Typing gan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
Yes. Read gàn, 干 means “to do”. That reading has its own page. Read gān, it means “dry”.
干 is an HSK 4 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.
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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.
干gān1st tone, high and level
