HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Adverbs

常 cháng “often” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 常 means

  1. often
  2. frequently
  3. always
  4. ever
  5. common
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • general

How to say 常

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

常 in a sentence

  1. 他常常出现在电视上。

    Tā chángcháng chūxiàn zài diànshì shàng.

    He often appears on TV.

    Sentence #714801 from Tatoeba

  2. 我们经常讨论天气。

    Wǒmen jīngcháng tǎolùn tiānqì.

    We often talk about the weather.

    Sentence #4972684 from Tatoeba

  3. 我经常忘记别人的名字。

    Wǒ jīngcháng wàngjì biéren de míngzi.

    I often forget other people’s names.

    Sentence #395528 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 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 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 常

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.

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

Words related to 常

Words with 常

非常fēicháng · extremely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通常tōngcháng · regular

More words: Adverbs & Degree

只是zhǐshì · only总zǒng · always看来kànlái · it seems不用búyòng · no need to全quán · whole同样tóngyàng · likewise就是jiùshì · exactly已yǐ · already

FAQs

常 (cháng) means “often” or “frequently”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it cháng: cháng with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 常 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type chang with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 常 from the suggestions. Typing chang into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
常 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 4 word list. It is not on the older 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.