看 meaning in English

kàn

to see; to look at; to read

HSK 1verb9 strokes

Meaning of 看

Definitions from CC-CEDICT.

kàn

to see; to look at
to read
to watch
to visit; to call on
to consider; to regard as
to look after
to treat (a patient or illness)
to depend on

kān

to look after
to take care of
to watch
to guard

How to use 看

看 is the everyday verb for watching, reading, and looking, as in 看书 (kàn shū, read a book) and 看电视 (kàn diànshì, watch TV). It also means to visit someone or to see a doctor, and 看 + noun can mean "it depends on". Example: 我想看电影。(Wǒ xiǎng kàn diànyǐng.) I want to watch a movie.

看 (kàn) shows a hand 手 held above an eye 目, like shading your eyes to look into the distance. A hand over the eye means to look.

Common mistake: Learners often use 看 when they mean "to see" as a result. 看 is the act of looking, while 看见 (kànjiàn) or 看到 (kàndào) means you actually saw something. When writing, the top part is a slanted form of 手, not 手 itself, so do not write a full 手 on top of 目.

看 in example sentences

Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.

你nǐ明míng天tiān可kě以yǐ来lái看kàn我wǒ吗ma？

Could you come and see me tomorrow?

我wǒ明míng天tiān可kě以yǐ来lái看kàn你nǐ吗ma？

May I come and see you tomorrow?

他tā们men看kàn到dào我wǒ们men了le吗ma？

Did they see us?

你nǐ没méi看kàn到dào我wǒ吗ma？是shì吗ma？

You can't see me, can you?

没méi有yǒu人rén会huì看kàn到dào我wǒ们men。

No one will see us.

Stroke order for each character

Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.

看 kàn · to see · 9 strokes

Related words

Words that share a character with 看.

看到	kàndào	to see
看见	kànjiàn	to see; to catch sight of
好看	hǎokàn	good-looking; nice-looking; (of a movie, book, TV show etc) good
看病	kànbìng	to visit a doctor; to see a patient
看法	kànfǎ	way of looking at a thing; view
难看	nánkàn	ugly; unsightly
看起来	kàn qǐlái	seemingly; apparently; looks as if; appears to be; gives the impression that; seems on the
看上去	kàn shàngqù	it would appear; it seems (that)
观看	guānkàn	to watch; to view
收看	shōukàn	to watch (a TV program)
看来	kànlái	apparently; it seems that
看不起	kànbuqǐ	to look down upon; to despise

Questions about 看

What does 看 mean?

看 (kàn) means "to see; to look at; to read" and is used as a verb.

How do you write 看?

看 is made of 1 character: 看 (9 strokes). That is 9 strokes in total.

Is 看 an HSK word?

Yes. 看 is on the HSK 1 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.

What does 看看 or 看一看 mean?

Doubling 看 softens it to mean "take a look" or "have a try". For example, 我看看 (wǒ kànkan) means "let me take a look", and 试试看 (shìshi kàn) means "try and see".

When is 看 pronounced kān instead of kàn?

It is read kān when it means to guard or look after, as in 看门 (kānmén, to guard the door) and 看孩子 (kān háizi, to babysit). In most everyday uses, like watching or reading, it is kàn.