HSK 5 · Verbs

砍 kǎn “to chop” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 砍 means

  1. to chop
  2. to cut down
  3. to throw sth at sb

How to say 砍

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale砍kǎn3rd tone, dipping

砍 in a sentence

  1. 他在花园里砍了一棵树。

    Tā zài huāyuán lǐ kǎn le yì kē shù.

    He cut down a tree in his garden.

    Sentence #429096 from Tatoeba

  2. 所有苹果树都被砍倒了。

    Suǒyǒu píngguǒ shù dōu bèi kǎn dǎo le.

    All the apple trees were cut down.

    Sentence #333114 from Tatoeba

  3. 砍 is also used in 砍价, “to haggle (the price down)”

    她很善于砍价。

    Tā hěn shànyú kǎnjià.

    She’s good at haggling.

    Sentence #1990231 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 砍 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 砍 (kǎn) with each of its parts in a different colour
砍kǎnto chop
  • 石stone · shíMeaning part
  • 欠yawn · qiànSound part

石 hints at the meaning (stone); 欠 (qiàn) hints at the sound. Compare it with kǎn.

How to write 砍

砍 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 砍

Words with 砍

砍伐kǎnfá · to fell (trees)

More words: Common Verbs

救jiù · to rescue具备jùbèi · to possess捐juān · to donate开放kāifàng · to open (to the public)克kè · gram克服kèfú · to overcome (difficulties)控制kòngzhì · to control拦lán · to block

FAQs

砍 (kǎn) means “to chop” or “to cut down”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it kǎn: kǎn with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 砍 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type kan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 砍 from the suggestions. Typing kan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
砍 is an HSK 5 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.