Meaning of 饭
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- cooked rice
- meal
- (loanword) fan
- devotee
Measure word: 碗
How to use 饭
饭 means cooked rice, and by extension any meal, since rice is at the center of many Chinese meals. It is very common in compounds like 早饭 (zǎofàn) breakfast, 午饭 (wǔfàn) lunch, and 晚饭 (wǎnfàn) dinner. Example: 你吃饭了吗？ (Nǐ chīfàn le ma?) Have you eaten yet?
The left side 饣 is the food radical, and the right side 反 (fǎn) gives the sound. Picture food on the left and a voice saying fǎn on the right, and you get 饭 (fàn), a meal.
Common mistake: Learners often write 饭 with 反 alone or confuse it with 版 (bǎn, edition), which shares the same right side. Also keep the fourth tone: fàn, not fǎn like its sound component.
饭 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
饭 fàn · cooked rice · 7 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 饭.
| 吃饭 | chīfàn | to have a meal; to eat |
| 午饭 | wǔfàn | lunch |
| 饭店 | fàndiàn | restaurant; hotel |
| 晚饭 | wǎnfàn | evening meal; dinner |
| 早饭 | zǎofàn | breakfast |
| 米饭 | mǐfàn | (cooked) rice |
| 做饭 | zuòfàn | to prepare a meal; to cook |
| 饭馆 | fànguǎn | restaurant |
| 盒饭 | héfàn | meal in a partitioned box |
| 电饭锅 | diànfànguō | electric rice cooker |
| 饭碗 | fànwǎn | rice bowl; fig. livelihood |
| 便饭 | biànfàn | an ordinary meal; simple home cooking |
Questions about 饭
What does 饭 mean?
饭 (fàn) means "cooked rice; meal" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 饭?
饭 is made of 1 character: 饭 (7 strokes). That is 7 strokes in total.
Is 饭 an HSK word?
Yes. 饭 is on the HSK 1 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How is 饭 written in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, 饭 is written 飯.
Is 你吃饭了吗 a real question or just a greeting?
It is often used as a friendly greeting, similar to asking how someone is doing. A simple answer like 吃了 (chī le) or 还没 (hái méi) is enough.
Does 饭店 mean restaurant or hotel?
It can mean both. In everyday speech in mainland China it often means a restaurant, but many large hotels also use 饭店 in their names.