HSK 1 · Numbers

三 sān “three” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 三 means

  1. three
  2. 3

How to say 三

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale三sān1st tone, high and level

三 in a sentence

  1. 我只花了三美元。

    Wǒ zhǐ huā le sān měiyuán.

    I only spent three dollars.

    Sentence #834728 from Tatoeba

  2. 八减去三就能得到五。

    Bā jiǎnqù sān jiù néng dédào wǔ.

    Subtract three from eight and you get five.

    Sentence #8727890 from Tatoeba

How 三 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 三 (sān) with each of its parts in a different colour
三sānthree
  • 一one · yī
  • 二two · èr

Memory aidThree strokes for three.

How to write 三

三 3 strokes

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

三 (sān) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 三 (sān). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 三

Words with 三

再三zàisān · over and over again丢三落四diūsānlàsì · forgetful

More words: Numbers & Money

一yī · one二èr · two四sì · four五wǔ · five六liù · six七qī · seven两liǎng · two (of)次cì · times

FAQs

三 (sān) means “three” or “3”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it sān: sān with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 三 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type san with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 三 from the suggestions. Typing san into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
三 is an HSK 1 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

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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.