Chinese character · HSK 1
看 (kàn) — “to look / to see”
The character visually combines a hand (龵) placed over an eye (目), representing the universal gesture of shielding one's eyes from the sun to look into the distance.
How to remember 看
Place your hand over your eye to look far away.
Inside the character
- 龵 — meaning component.
- 目 (eye) — meaning component. Often marks seeing, watching, attention, or anything to do with the gaze.
Where 看 comes from
An ideogrammatic compound (会意): originally depicting a hand (龵) positioned horizontally above an eye (目) to block the glare and focus on a distant object.
Words that use 看
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 看到 | kàn dào | to see | HSK 1 |
| 看见 | kàn jiàn | to see / to catch sight of | HSK 1 |
| 好看 | hǎo kàn | good-looking / nice-looking | HSK 1 |
Learn 看 the visual way. InkSeal pairs every HSK 1–6 character
with an illustration like this one, plus component breakdowns, etymology, and
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More characters: 竹 (zhú, bamboo) · 策 (cè, strategy / plan) · 算 (suàn, to calculate / to compute) — or browse the full character library.