飯 meaning and stroke order
Meal, food; cooked rice
How to write 飯, stroke by stroke
12 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
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
Meaning of 飯
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- cooked rice
- meal
- (loanword) fan
- devotee
How 飯 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Food.
飠 gives the meaning and 反 hints at the sound.
Radical: 飠 (food), shared by 44 characters on this site.
How to remember 飯
The left side 飠 is the food component, and the right side 反 (fǎn) gives the sound. Picture food on the left and the sound fǎn on the right, and you get 飯 (fàn), a meal.
飯 means cooked rice, and more broadly a meal. It appears in everyday words like 吃飯 (chīfàn, to eat), 早飯 (zǎofàn, breakfast) and 晚飯 (wǎnfàn, dinner). Example: 你吃飯了嗎？ (Nǐ chīfàn le ma?) Have you eaten?
Common mistake: Learners often mix up the tone. The sound part 反 is fǎn with a third tone, but 飯 is fàn with a falling fourth tone. Also, 飯 is the traditional form, and in simplified Chinese it is written 饭, so do not mix the two forms in one text.
Common words with 飯
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 吃飯 | chīfàn | to have a meal; to eat | HSK 1 |
| 午飯 | wǔfàn | lunch | HSK 1 |
| 飯店 | fàndiàn | restaurant; hotel | HSK 1 |
| 晚飯 | wǎnfàn | evening meal; dinner | HSK 1 |
| 早飯 | zǎofàn | breakfast | HSK 1 |
| 米飯 | mǐfàn | (cooked) rice | HSK 1 |
| 做飯 | zuòfàn | to prepare a meal; to cook | HSK 2 |
| 飯館 | fànguǎn | restaurant | HSK 2 |
| 盒飯 | héfàn | meal in a partitioned box | HSK 5 |
| 電飯鍋 | diànfànguō | electric rice cooker | HSK 5 |
| 飯碗 | fànwǎn | rice bowl; fig. livelihood | HSK 7-9 |
| 便飯 | biànfàn | an ordinary meal; simple home cooking | HSK 7-9 |
| 年夜飯 | niányèfàn | reunion dinner on Lunar New Year's Eve (Chinese New Year tradition) | HSK 7-9 |
| 煮飯 | zhǔfàn | to cook |
Questions about 飯
How many strokes are in 飯?
飯 is written with 12 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 飯 mean?
飯 (fàn) means meal, food; cooked rice. A common word with it is 吃饭 (chīfàn), meaning "to have a meal; to eat".
How do you pronounce 飯?
飯 is pronounced fàn, in the fourth tone (falling).
What is the radical of 飯?
The radical of 飯 is 飠, which carries the idea of "food". Dictionaries list 飯 under this radical.
What is the simplified form of 飯?
飯 is a traditional character. Its simplified form is 饭, used in mainland China and Singapore.
Does 吃飯了嗎 really mean 'Have you eaten?'
Literally, yes. In daily life it is also a casual greeting, a bit like 'How are you?', and a simple 吃了 (chī le) is a fine reply.
What is the difference between 飯店 and 飯館?
飯館 (fànguǎn) is usually a small, ordinary restaurant. 飯店 (fàndiàn) can mean a restaurant, but in many names it means a hotel, such as 北京飯店.