甘 meaning and stroke order
Sweet, tasty; willing
How to write 甘, stroke by stroke
5 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Meaning of 甘
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- (bound form) sweet; pleasant (contrasted with 苦[ku3]: bitter, unpleasant)
- to be willing (to do sth)
How 甘 is built
Ideographic (compound meaning) character. Picture of a tongue with 一 marking the sweet spot.
How to remember 甘
Picture an open mouth with a tongue inside, and the extra line 一 marks the spot where you taste something sweet. Sweet things are pleasant, so 甘 (gān) also came to mean being glad or willing to do something.
甘 rarely stands alone in modern speech. For everyday sweetness people say 甜 (tián), while 甘 appears in set words like 甘蔗 (gānzhe, sugar cane) and in words about willingness such as 甘心 and 甘愿. Example: 他心甘情愿地帮忙。(Tā xīngānqíngyuàn de bāngmáng.) He is perfectly happy to help.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 甘 with 廿 (niàn, twenty), which looks similar but lacks the closed bottom stroke inside. Also, 甘蔗 is read gānzhe with a neutral second syllable, not gān zhè.
Common words with 甘
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 甘心 | gānxīn | to be willing to; to resign oneself to | HSK 7-9 |
| 心甘情愿 | xīngānqíngyuàn | delighted to (do sth, idiom); perfectly happy to do | |
| 甘愿 | gānyuàn | willingly | |
| 善罢甘休 | shànbàgānxiū | (idiom) to let the matter rest; to just let it go; to take it lying down (usu. used in the | |
| 甘蓝 | gānlán | cabbage; Chinese broccoli | |
| 甘蔗 | gānzhe | sugar cane | |
| 同甘共苦 | tónggāngòngkǔ | shared delights and common hardships (idiom); to share life's joys and sorrows; for better | |
| 甘油 | gānyóu | glycerine; glycerol |
甘 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Characters that contain 甘
Learning 甘 makes these easier to recognize and write.
Questions about 甘
How many strokes are in 甘?
甘 is written with 5 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 甘 mean?
甘 (gān) means sweet, tasty; willing. A common word with it is 甘心 (gānxīn), meaning "to be willing to; to resign oneself to".
How do you pronounce 甘?
甘 is pronounced gān, in the first tone (high and level).
Is 甘 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 甘 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 甘 and 甜?
甜 (tián) is the everyday word for sweet, as in 这个蛋糕很甜. 甘 is more literary and mostly lives inside fixed words and idioms, often with a sense of pleasant or willing rather than sugary.
Does 不甘心 mean the same as 不愿意?
Not quite. 不愿意 simply means unwilling, while 不甘心 means you cannot accept or resign yourself to something, like losing a game you think you should have won. 甘心 carries a feeling of acceptance or resignation.