Mnemonic comic for

Translation

kàn = k + an4: to see / to look at / to read / to watch / to visit / to call on / to consider / to regard as / to look after / to treat (an illness) / to depend on / to feel (that) / (after verb) to give it a try / Watch out! (for a danger)

Mnemonic

A mnemonic is a short, deliberately ridiculous scene, built to be hard to forget. Who appears in it and where it takes place are how the pronunciation is stored; the objects in it stand for the parts the character is written with. That is the Marilyn Method, and the comic below is the same scene, drawn.

Karl Marx (k) wants to use the anthill’s bathroom (an4), but when the Eye of Providence (目) is watching (看) so he’s not able to. He uses a big baseball glove (手) to get some privacy.

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All translations for 看

kān = k + an1
to look after / to take care of / to watch / to guard
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kàn = k + an4
to see / to look at / to read / to watch / to visit / to call on / to consider / to regard as / to look after / to treat (an illness) / to depend on / to feel (that) / (after verb) to give it a try / Watch out! (for a danger)
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How to pronounce 看

MandarinBanana teaches pronunciation with the Marilyn Method: every Pinyin syllable is one initial plus one final, the initial becomes a person, an animal or a deity, and the final becomes a place in your memory palace — with the tone deciding which part of that place the scene happens in. Remember the little story below for each half and the whole syllable comes back with them.

= k initial

K is for Karl Marx.

By Matthias • updated 3 months ago
+ an1 final

In front of the anthill.

By Matthias • updated 6 months ago
= k initial

K is for Karl Marx.

By Matthias • updated 3 months ago
+ an4 final

In the anthill’s bathroom.

By Matthias • updated 6 months ago

看 character breakdown

Chinese characters are built out of smaller characters. Each component carries a mnemonic symbol - one concrete object that stands in for it - and a mnemonic story hands those objects to the person and the place that stand for the pronunciation. Learn a component once and every character that reuses it gets easier.

Component Translations
shǒu = sh + ou3
hand / (formal) to hold / person engaged in certain types of work / person skilled in certain types of work / personal(ly) / convenient / classifier for skill / CL:雙|双[shuang1],隻|只[zhi1]
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= mu + Ø4
eye / (literary) to look; to regard / eye (of a net); mesh / mesh size; grit size (abbr. for 目數|目数[mu4 shu4]) / item; section / list; catalogue / (taxonomy) order / name; title
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Characters with 看 as component

看 is not used as a component in another character.

Words with 看

show 164 more
to take a look at / to examine / to survey / (coll.) pretty soon
to see / to catch sight of
Sentences with 看
xiān
gēn
kàn

Want to remember 看 for good?

Make it your learning target and MandarinBanana works out the shortest route to it: the two sounds its syllable is built from, then the components of the character itself, one short step at a time. No account needed to start.

kān / kàn

2 translations

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