HSK 4 · Verbs

谈 tán “to speak” in Chinese

Traditional 談

What 谈 means

  1. to speak
  2. to talk
  3. to converse
  4. to chat
  5. to discuss

How to say 谈

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale谈tán2nd tone, rising

谈 in a sentence

  1. 他们在谈音乐。

    Tāmen zài tán yīnyuè.

    They are talking about music.

    Sentence #808217 from Tatoeba

  2. 聚会上我和他谈得很愉快。

    Jùhuì shàng wǒ hé tā tán de hěn yúkuài.

    I had a really nice talk with him at the party.

    Sentence #1438463 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 他们谈计划谈了几个小时。

    Tāmen tán jìhuà tán le jǐ ge xiǎoshí.

    They discussed the plan for several hours.

    Sentence #816480 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 谈 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 谈 (tán) with each of its parts in a different colour
谈tánto speak
  • 讠speech form of 言 · yánMeaning part
  • 炎flame · yánSound part

讠 hints at the meaning (speech); 炎 (yán) hints at the sound. Compare it with tán.

How to write 谈

谈 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 谈

Words with 谈

谈判tánpàn · to negotiate洽谈qiàtán · to negotiate侃侃而谈kǎnkǎn'értán · to speak with ease and confidence

More words: Thinking & Talking

批评pīpíng · to criticise商量shāngliang · to consult熟悉shúxī · to be familiar with说明shuōmíng · to explain讨论tǎolùn · to discuss提醒tíxǐng · to remind填空tiánkòng · to fill in the blanks (on a form or test)通知tōngzhī · to notify

FAQs

谈 (tán) means “to speak” or “to talk”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it tán: tán 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, 谈 is written 談. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type tan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 谈 from the suggestions. Typing tan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
谈 is an HSK 4 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.