HSK 6 · Food

馋 chán “greedy (for food)” in Chinese

Traditional 饞

What 馋 means

  1. greedy (for food)
  2. gluttonous
  3. greedy
  4. to have a craving

How to say 馋

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale馋chán2nd tone, rising

馋 in a sentence

  1. 看到这么多好吃的，我都馋了。

    Kàndào zhème duō hǎochī de, wǒ dōu chán le.

    Seeing all this delicious food makes my mouth water.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 这孩子太馋了，总想吃零食。

    Zhè háizi tài chán le, zǒng xiǎng chī língshí.

    This child is so greedy, always wanting snacks.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 馋 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 馋 (chán) drawn as one shape
馋chángluttonous

馋 is a single shape of 12 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 馋

馋 12 strokes

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

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

Words related to 馋

More words: Food & Dining

营养yíngyǎng · nutrition油炸yóuzhá · to deep fry玉米yùmǐ · corn煮zhǔ · to boil盛chéng · to fill (a bowl)橙chéng · orange (fruit)蛋白质dànbáizhì · protein稻谷dàogǔ · rice (unhusked)

FAQs

馋 (chán) means “greedy (for food)” or “gluttonous”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it chán: chán with a 2nd 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, 馋 is written 饞. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type chan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 馋 from the suggestions. Typing chan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
馋 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.