饭 meaning and stroke order
Cooked rice; meal; (loanword) fan
How to write 饭, stroke by stroke
7 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
Meaning of 饭
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- cooked rice
- meal
- (loanword) fan
- devotee
How 饭 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Food.
饣 gives the meaning and 反 hints at the sound.
Radical: 饣 (food), shared by 43 characters on this site.
How to remember 饭
The left side 饣 is the food radical, and the right side 反 (fǎn) gives the sound. Picture food 饣 that you turn over 反 in the wok until it is ready, and you have a meal 饭 (fàn).
饭 means cooked rice, but it very often just means a meal in general, as in 午饭 (wǔfàn) lunch and 晚饭 (wǎnfàn) dinner. The everyday verb for eating a meal is 吃饭 (chīfàn), even if no rice is served. Example: 我们去吃饭吧。(Wǒmen qù chīfàn ba.) Let's go eat.
Common mistake: Learners often write the right side as 友 or 又 instead of 反, or confuse 饭 with 饮 (yǐn, to drink), which has the same 饣 radical but 欠 on the right. Also note the tone shift: 反 is third tone (fǎn), but 饭 is fourth tone (fàn).
Common words with 饭
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 吃饭 | chīfàn | to have a meal; to eat | HSK 1 |
| 午饭 | wǔfàn | lunch | HSK 1 |
| 饭店 | fàndiàn | restaurant; hotel | HSK 1 |
| 晚饭 | wǎnfàn | evening meal; dinner | HSK 1 |
| 早饭 | zǎofàn | breakfast | HSK 1 |
| 米饭 | mǐfàn | (cooked) rice | HSK 1 |
| 做饭 | zuòfàn | to prepare a meal; to cook | HSK 2 |
| 饭馆 | fànguǎn | restaurant | HSK 2 |
| 盒饭 | héfàn | meal in a partitioned box | HSK 5 |
| 电饭锅 | diànfànguō | electric rice cooker | HSK 5 |
| 饭碗 | fànwǎn | rice bowl; fig. livelihood | HSK 7-9 |
| 便饭 | biànfàn | an ordinary meal; simple home cooking | HSK 7-9 |
| 年夜饭 | niányèfàn | reunion dinner on Lunar New Year's Eve (Chinese New Year tradition) | HSK 7-9 |
| 煮饭 | zhǔfàn | to cook |
饭 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 饭
How many strokes are in 饭?
饭 is written with 7 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 饭 mean?
饭 (fàn) means cooked rice; meal; (loanword) fan. A common word with it is 吃饭 (chīfàn), meaning "to have a meal; to eat".
How do you pronounce 饭?
饭 is pronounced fàn, in the fourth tone (falling).
What is the radical of 饭?
The radical of 饭 is 饣, which carries the idea of "food". Dictionaries list 饭 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 饭?
The traditional form of 饭 is 飯. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 饭 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 饭 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 饭 is part of the HSK 1 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard, and you are expected to write it by hand from HSK 1.
Does 饭店 mean restaurant or hotel?
It can mean both. In mainland China, large 饭店 (fàndiàn) are often hotels, while a smaller everyday restaurant is usually called 饭馆 (fànguǎn) or 餐厅 (cāntīng).
How is 饭 used to mean fan or devotee?
It is a loanword sound match for the English word fan, used mostly in fan culture. For example, 影迷 is more traditional, but you will see 饭圈 (fànquān) for fandom and 粉丝 (fěnsī) for fans.