HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Adverbs

看来 kànlái “it seems” in Chinese

Traditional 看來

What 看来 means

  1. it seems
  2. apparently
  3. it seems that

How to say 看来

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale看kàn4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale来lái2nd tone, rising

看来 in a sentence

  1. 看来他搞错了。

    Kànlái tā gǎocuò le.

    It looks like he got it wrong.

    Sentence #336429 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 看来她已经收到了钱。

    Kànlái tā yǐjīng shōudào le qián.

    It seems she’s already received the money.

    Sentence #7841409 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 看来你需要帮助。

    Kànlái nǐ xūyào bāngzhù.

    It looks like you need help.

    Sentence #10040464 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 看来 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 看 (kàn) with each of its parts in a different colour
看kànto see; to look at
  • 手hand · shǒu
  • 目eye · mù

Memory aidA hand 手 shading the eyes 目: to look.

The character 来 (lái) with each of its parts in a different colour
来láito come
  • 未part of the character
  • 丷eight form of 八 · bā

Memory aidDrawn from a stalk of wheat. It was borrowed early on for “to come”.

How to write 看来

看 9 strokes · 来 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 看来

Words with 看

看kàn · to look看见kànjiàn · to see看病kànbìng · to visit a doctor好看hǎokàn · good-looking难看nánkàn · ugly看法kànfǎ · way of looking at a thing看望kànwàng · to visit看不起kànbuqǐ · to look down upon看待kàndài · to regard

Words with 来

来lái · to come出来chūlái · to come out过来guòlái · to come over回来huílai · to return进来jìnlái · to come in上来shànglái · to come up下来xiàlai · to come down后来hòulái · afterwards起来qǐlai · beginning or continuing an action带来dàilái · to bring (about)

More words: Adverbs & Degree

越来越yuèláiyuè · more and more就要jiùyào · about to只是zhǐshì · only总zǒng · always不用búyòng · no need to常cháng · often全quán · whole同样tóngyàng · likewise

FAQs

看来 (kànlái) means “it seems” or “apparently”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it kànlái: kàn with a 4th tone, then lái 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, 看来 is written 看來. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type kanlai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 看来 from the suggestions. Typing kanlai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
看来 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.