HSK 3.0 Level 1 · Food

午饭 wǔfàn “lunch” in Chinese

Traditional 午飯

What 午饭 means

  1. lunch

Measure word 份 fèn or 顿 dùn · 一份午饭 yí fèn wǔfàn

How to say 午饭

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale午wǔ3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale饭fàn4th tone, falling

午饭 in a sentence

  1. 他已经吃过午饭了。

    Tā yǐjīng chīguo wǔfàn le.

    He has already had lunch.

    Sentence #334783 from Tatoeba

  2. 你们午饭吃了什么？

    Nǐmen wǔfàn chī le shénme?

    What did you eat for lunch?

    Sentence #7772627 from Tatoeba

  3. 我十二点出去吃午饭。

    Wǒ shí'èr diǎn chūqù chī wǔfàn.

    I go out for lunch at twelve.

    Sentence #6452023 from Tatoeba

How 午饭 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 午 (wǔ) with each of its parts in a different colour
午wǔ7th earthly branch: 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
  • 丿slash · piě
  • 干dry · gān

Memory aidDrawn from a pestle. It was borrowed for the hour around noon, as in 中午 (zhōngwǔ) “midday”.

The character 饭 (fàn) with each of its parts in a different colour
饭fàncooked rice
  • 饣eat form of 食 · shíMeaning part
  • 反reverse · fǎnSound part

饣 hints at the meaning (eat); 反 (fǎn) hints at the sound. Compare it with fàn.

How to write 午饭

午 4 strokes · 饭 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 午饭

Words with 午

上午shàngwǔ · morning (forenoon)下午xiàwǔ · afternoon中午zhōngwǔ · noon端午节Duānwǔjié · Dragon Boat Festival

Words with 饭

饭fàn · cooked rice饭店fàndiàn · restaurant米饭mǐfàn · cooked rice晚饭wǎnfàn · evening meal早饭zǎofàn · breakfast做饭zuòfàn · to prepare a meal饭馆fànguǎn · restaurant

More words: Food & Drink

茶chá · tea饭fàn · cooked rice面条儿miàntiáor · noodles晚饭wǎnfàn · evening meal早饭zǎofàn · breakfast牛奶niúnǎi · milk鸡蛋jīdàn · egg西瓜xīguā · watermelon

FAQs

午饭 (wǔfàn) means “lunch”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word.
Say it wǔfàn: wǔ with a 3rd tone, then fàn with a 4th 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, 午饭 is written 午飯. The pronunciation is the same.
Use 份 (fèn) or 顿 (dùn). For example, one lunch is 一份午饭 (yí fèn wǔfàn).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type wufan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 午饭 from the suggestions. Typing wufan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
午饭 is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 1 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.