HSK 3 · Function Words

还 huán “to return” in Chinese

Traditional 還

What 还 means

  1. to return
  2. to give back
  3. to pay back

Also read hái: “still, also”

See the page for 还 hái

How to say 还

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale还huán2nd tone, rising

还 in a sentence

  1. 她没有还我钱。

    Tā méiyǒu huán wǒ qián.

    She didn’t give me my money back.

    Sentence #788661 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我今天得把这本书还给图书馆。

    Wǒ jīntiān děi bǎ zhè běn shū huán gěi túshūguǎn.

    I have to return this book to the library today.

    Sentence #464852 from Tatoeba

  3. 我把她的字典还给了她。

    Wǒ bǎ tā de zìdiǎn huán gěi le tā.

    I gave her dictionary back to her.

    Sentence #793874 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 还 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 还 (hái) with each of its parts in a different colour
还huánto pay back
  • 不no · bù
  • 辶walking form of 辵 · chuò

Memory aidWalk 辶 back again: to return (huán). Read hái, it means “still”.

How to write 还

还 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 还

Words with 还

还是háishi · or讨价还价tǎojiàhuánjià · to bargain归还guīhuán · to return (something)还原huányuán · to restore偿还chánghuán · to repay

More words: Particles & Connectors

多么duōme · how跟gēn · to follow关于guānyú · about还是háishi · or或者huòzhě · or然后ránhòu · then如果rúguǒ · if为wèi · for

FAQs

还 (huán) means “to return” or “to give back”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it huán: huán 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, 还 is written 還. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type huan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 还 from the suggestions. Typing huan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
Yes. Read hái, 还 means “still, also”. That reading has its own page. Read huán, it means “to return”.
还 is an HSK 3 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.