(fān): sail, Taiwan pr., except 帆布 canvas, to gallop

(fān) is a Chinese character meaning “sail.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2376 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, cloth. Its radical form (cloth) appears in many related characters such as (shī, teacher), (bāng, to help), (cháng, always).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. sail
  2. Taiwan pr., except 帆布 canvas
  3. to gallop

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticcloth

Decomposition: ⿰巾凡 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
yī fān fēng shùnpropitious wind throughout the journey (idiom)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
fān chuánsailboat
yáng fānto set sail
fān bùcanvas
fān bǎnsailboard
fēng fānsail
chuán fānsail
使jiàn fēng shǐ fānlit. see the wind and set your sails (idiom)
yáng fān yuǎn hángto set sail on a voyage to a distant place
zhāng chūn fānZhang Chunfan (-1935), late Qing novelist, author of The Nine-tailed Turtle 九尾龜|九尾龟
lì fānLifan Group (auto manufacturer in Chongqing)
chuán fān zuòVela (constellation)
zhǎn fānto unfurl (a sail)
zhuǎn fānto tack (of sailing ship)
mǎn fānunder full sail
fān bù xiécanvas shoes
22
Total compounds
27
As first character
55
As last character
18
As middle character

appears in 22 compound words: 27 as the first character, 55 as the last, and 18 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

chuán
0.62035,889 co-occurrences
0.4443,522 co-occurrences
jiǎng
0.437480 co-occurrences
sōu
0.4332,958 co-occurrences
yáng
0.4331,938 co-occurrences
jǐn
0.4071,434 co-occurrences
làng
0.3971,950 co-occurrences
zòng
0.389966 co-occurrences
fēng
0.3883,612 co-occurrences
huá
0.3831,698 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

yīfānfēngshùnHSK 6+

to have a favourable wind all the way; to run smoothly, without incident

phrase

Showing 1 of 2 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习字需要反复练习,才能写得工整。

xué xí fān zì xū yāo fǎn fù liàn xí , cái néng xiě dé gōng zhěng .

Mastering the character "帆" requires repeated practice to write it neatly.

光明网_新闻视野、文化视角、思想深度、理论高度Mar 2026

...的“技术工匠”——记火箭军某部工程师王江

. . . de jì shù gōng jiàng — — jì huǒ jiàn jūn mǒu bù gōng chéng shī wáng jiāng fān

...The "Technical Craftsman" — A Profile of Wang Jiangfan, an Engineer with a Rocket Force Unit

EttodayMar 2026

字节跳动出售旗下游戏公司沐瞳 张云续任CEO

zì jié tiào dòng chū shòu qí xià yóu xì gōng sī mù 瞳 zhāng yún fān xù rèn C E O

ByteDance Sells Its Gaming Subsidiary Mooton; Zhang Yunfan to Remain CEO

The Beijing NewsMar 2026

字节超60亿美元出售沐瞳科技 张云:本人将继续担任沐瞳CEO

zì jié chāo 6 0 yì měi yuán chū shòu mù 瞳 kē jì zhāng yún fān : běn rén jiāng jì xù dān rèn mù 瞳 C E O

ByteDance Sells Mooton Technology for Over $6 Billion; Zhang Yunfan: I Will Continue to Serve as Mooton’s CEO

Hk01.comMar 2026

住杜拜船酒店亲遇导弹碎片袭击 中国母女砸36万...

zhù dù bài fān chuán jiǔ diàn qīn yù dǎo dàn suì piàn xí jī zhōng guó mǔ nǚ zá 3 6 wàn . . .

Staying at Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai, the Chinese mother and daughter smashed 360,000 yuan...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

ASML秀新技术 宣满手单跻身大赢家

A S M L xiù xīn jì shù fān xuān mǎn shǒu dān 跻 shēn dà yíng jiā

ASML showed new technology and became a big winner

Tatoeba

汤姆正在教我怎么开船。

Tāngmǔ zhèngzài jiāo wǒ zěnme kāi fānchuán.

Tom is teaching me to how to sail.

Tatoeba

我们路上一风顺,直到遇上暴风雪。

Wǒmen lùshang yī fān fēng shùn, zhídào yùshàng bàofēngxuě.

We made good time until we ran into a blizzard.

Tatoeba

我好久没坐船了。

Wǒ hǎojiǔ méi zuò fānchuán le.

I haven't been sailing for years.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced fān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 帆 (fān) mean in Chinese?
帆 (fān) primarily means "sail." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2376 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 帆 and 凤?
帆 (fān) and 凤 (fèng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 巾 vs 几 (same 凡 component).
How many strokes does 帆 have?
帆 is written with 6 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 帆?
The radical associated with 帆 is 巾 (cloth). This radical appears in many characters related to cloth.
What are the components of 帆?
帆 is composed of: 巾 (semantic), 凡 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰巾凡 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 帆?
Common words with 帆 include: 帆船 (fān chuán, "sailboat"); 一帆风顺 (yī fān fēng shùn, "propitious wind throughout the journey (idiom)"); 扬帆 (yáng fān, "to set sail"); 帆布 (fān bù, "canvas"); 帆板 (fān bǎn, "sailboard"). There are over 22 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 帆 (fān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation fān: 番 (time, foreign), 翻 (to turn over), 凡 (ordinary), 烦 (to feel vexed), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 帆 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 帆 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.