HSK 2 · Pronouns

男 nán “male” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 男 means

  1. male
  2. man
  3. (bound form) male
  4. baron, the lowest of the five ranks of nobility 五等爵位

How to say 男

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale男nán2nd tone, rising

男 in a sentence

  1. 您的孩子是男是女？

    Nín de háizi shì nán shì nǚ?

    Is your child a boy or a girl?

    Sentence #2202364 from Tatoeba

  2. 我汉语老师是男的。

    Wǒ Hànyǔ lǎoshī shì nán de.

    My Chinese teacher is a man.

    Sentence #333609 from Tatoeba

  3. 在那儿看报纸的男人是我叔叔。

    Zài nàr kàn bàozhǐ de nánrén shì wǒ shūshu.

    The man reading the newspaper over there is my uncle.

    Sentence #336724 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 男 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 男 (nán) with each of its parts in a different colour
男nánmale
  • 田field · tián
  • 力strength · lì

Memory aidStrength 力 in the field 田: a man.

How to write 男

男 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 男

Words with 男

男朋友nánpéngyou · boyfriend男人nánrén · man男孩儿nánháir · boy男生nánshēng · male student

More words: People, Body & Health

那个nàge · that one这个zhège · this one看病kànbìng · to visit a doctor服务员fúwùyuán · waiter女nǚ · female妻子qīzi · wife哥哥gēge · older brother姐姐jiějie · older sister

FAQs

男 (nán) means “male” or “man”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it nán: nán with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 男 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type nan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 男 from the suggestions. Typing nan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
男 is an HSK 2 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.