HSK 6 · Food

家常 jiācháng “home-style” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 家常 means

  1. home-style
  2. daily life
  3. small talk
  4. the daily life of a family

How to say 家常

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale家jiā1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale常cháng2nd tone, rising

家常 in a sentence

  1. 你最喜欢的家常菜是什么？

    Nǐ zuì xǐhuan de jiāchángcài shì shénme?

    What’s your favourite home-style dish?

    Sentence #5548487 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 家常 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.

The character 家 (jiā) with each of its parts in a different colour
家jiāhome
  • 宀roof · miánMeaning part
  • 豕pig · shǐSound part

宀 hints at the meaning (roof); 豕 (shǐ) hints at the sound. Compare it with jiā.

Memory aidA pig 豕 under a roof 宀: a home, a family.

The character 常 (cháng) with each of its parts in a different colour
常chángalways
  • 尚still · shàngSound part
  • 巾napkin · jīnMeaning part

巾 hints at the meaning (napkin); 尚 (shàng) hints at the sound. Compare it with cháng.

Memory aidCloth 巾 with 尚 (shàng) for the sound. Its first meaning was a skirt; now it means “often, usual”.

How to write 家常

家 10 strokes · 常 11 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

家常 (jiācháng) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 家常 (jiācháng). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 家常

Words with 家

家jiā · home家人jiārén · family member大家dàjiā · everyone国家guójiā · country画家huàjiā · painter搬家bānjiā · to move house作家zuòjiā · writer家具jiājù · furniture家庭jiātíng · family家务jiāwù · household duties

Words with 常

非常fēicháng · extremely常cháng · often经常jīngcháng · often常见chángjiàn · common常用chángyòng · commonly used常常chángcháng · often正常zhèngcháng · regular平常píngcháng · ordinary常识chángshí · common sense日常rìcháng · day-to-day

More words: Food & Dining

丰盛fēngshèng · lavish风味fēngwèi · local flavour烘hōng · to bake荤hūn · meat dish煎jiān · to pan-fry搅拌jiǎobàn · to stir佳肴jiāyáo · fine dish咀嚼jǔjué · to chew

FAQs

家常 (jiācháng) means “home-style” or “daily life”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it jiācháng: jiā with a 1st tone, then cháng with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 家常 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type jiachang with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 家常 from the suggestions. Typing jiachang into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
家常 is an HSK 6 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.