感 (gǎn): to feel, to sense

感 (gǎn) is a Chinese character meaning “to feel, to sense.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 咸 (structural) and 心 (structural). It ranks #243 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 感 two hearts 心 beating together 咸. Its radical form 心 (heart) appears in many related characters such as 忘 (wàng, to forget), 想 (xiǎng, to think, to want), 爱 (ài, to love).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to feel, to sense

Etymology & Origin

感

ideographicTwo hearts 心 beating together 咸

Decomposition: ⿱咸心 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 感

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
感觉noun/verbgǎn juéfeeling4
感谢verbgǎn xièto thank4
感到verbgǎn dàoto feel3
感受verb/noungǎn shòuto sense4
感情noungǎn qíngemotion4
感激verbgǎn jīto be grateful6
感染verbgǎn rǎnto infect6
情感nounqíng gǎnfeeling5
敏感adjectivemǐn gǎnsensitive5
感动adjective/verbgǎn dòngto move (sb)4
感冒noun/verbgǎn màoto catch cold3
感人adjectivegǎn réntouching4
流感nounliú gǎnflu5
好感nounhǎo gǎngood opinion6
感想noungǎn xiǎngimpressions6
感兴趣verbgǎn xìng qùto be interested (in sth)3
口感nounkǒu gǎnmouthfeel6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
性感adjectivexìng gǎnsex appeal
灵感nounlíng gǎncreative inspiration
感恩节proper-noungǎn ēn jiéThanksgiving Day
预感verbyù gǎnto have a premonition
感应noungǎn yìngresponse
安全感nounān quán gǎnsense of security
幽默感nounyōu mò gǎnsense of humor
伤感adjectiveshāng gǎnsad
快感nounkuài gǎnpleasure
反感nounfǎn gǎnto be disgusted with
感恩verbgǎn ēnto be grateful
深感verbshēn gǎnto feel deeply
感激不尽phrasegǎn jī bù jìncan't thank sb enough (idiom)
传感器nounchuán gǎn qìsensor
感知verbgǎn zhīperception (the process of perceiving sth with the senses)
104
Total compounds
44
As first character
54
As last character
2
As middle character

感 appears in 104 compound words: 44 as the first character, 54 as the last, and 2 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 感 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

染rǎn
0.64093,870 co-occurrences
症zhèng
0.57526,426 co-occurrences
情qíng
0.55878,246 co-occurrences
敏mǐn
0.55721,668 co-occurrences
状zhuàng
0.55126,058 co-occurrences
到dào
0.526121,254 co-occurrences
觉jué
0.51414,892 co-occurrences
灵líng
0.4919,922 co-occurrences
慨kǎi
0.4832,372 co-occurrences
叹tàn
0.4781,702 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (13)

病毒感染bìng dú gǎn rǎnHSK 6+

viral infection

phrase
多愁善感duōchóushàngǎnHSK 6+

melancholy and moody; depressed personality

phrase
非常感谢fēicháng gǎnxièHSK 3+

thank you very much

phrase
感恩戴德gǎn'ēndàidéHSK 7+

to be (deeply) grateful for someone's benevolence or favor

phrase
感恩图报gǎn ēn tú bàoHSK 7+

grateful and seeking to repay the kindness (idiom)

phrase
感激不尽gǎnjībùjìnHSK 4+

can't thank (somebody) enough; to highly appreciate help provided by someone or something

phrase
感激涕零gǎnjītìlíngHSK 7+

to shed tears of gratitude; to be overwhelmingly moved by another person's kindness

phrase
感觉器官gǎn jué qì guānHSK 6+

sense organs; the five senses

phrase
感情用事gǎn qíng yòng shìHSK 3+

to act impetuously (idiom); on an impulse

phrase
感人肺腑gǎn rén fèi fǔ

(idiom) deeply touching

phrase
交叉感染jiāochā gǎnrǎnHSK 5+

cross-infection

noun
交感神经jiāo gǎn shén jīngHSK 5+

sympathetic nervous system

phrase

Showing 12 of 13 idioms containing 感.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

感谢你的帮助,没有你的支持这个项目不可能成功。

Gǎnxiè nǐ de bāngzhù, méiyǒu nǐ de zhīchí zhè gè xiàngmù bù kěnéng chénggōng.

Thank you for your help; this project couldn't have succeeded without your support.

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

明真相大陆民众新年感恩:大法师父好

míng zhēn xiāng dà lù mín zhòng xīn nián gǎn ēn : dà fǎ shī fù hǎo

The people of the mainland are grateful for the New Year: Hello Master Dafa

百度新闻Feb 2026

日本流感疫情持续高位,七成地区达“警报”级别

rì běn liú gǎn yì qíng chí xù gāo wèi , qī chéng dì qū dá jǐng bào jí bié

The influenza epidemic in Japan continues to be high, with 70% of the regions reaching the "alert" level

百度新闻Feb 2026

一杯热水赠归人 一句感谢显温情 环兰高速人:点滴之..

yī bēi rè shuǐ zèng guī rén yī gōu gǎn xiè xiǎn wēn qíng huán lán gāo sù rén diǎn dī zhī . .

A cup of hot water for the returnees A word of thanks for the warmth of the Huanlan Expressway people: a little bit of...

百度新闻Feb 2026

这场新春之约,让更多家庭感受到浓浓暖意

zhè chǎng xīn chūn zhī yāo , ràng gēng duō jiā tíng gǎn shòu dào nóng nóng nuǎn yì

This New Year gathering brought warmth to many families.

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层·驻外记者回乡手记丨在中国,感受火箭一飞..

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng zhù wài jì zhě huí xiāng shǒu jì 丨 zài zhōng guó , gǎn shòu huǒ jiàn yī fēi . .

Spring Festival at the Grassroots Level: Correspondents' Homecoming Notes丨In China, Witnessing a Rocket's Soaring Flight...

Tatoeba

你们对外语感兴趣吗?

Nǐmen duì wàiyǔ gǎn xìngqù ma?

Are you interested in foreign languages?

Tatoeba

“你感觉怎么样?”他问。

"Nǐ gǎnjué zěnmeyàng?" tā wèn.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

Tatoeba

你对这场比赛有什么感想?

Nǐ duì zhè chǎng bǐsài yǒu shénme gǎnxiǎng?

How did you feel about the game?

Tatoeba

你对美国的感觉是怎样的?

Nǐ duì Měi guó de gǎnjué shì zěnyàng de?

What is your impression of America?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced gǎn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 感 (gǎn) mean in Chinese?
感 (gǎn) primarily means "to feel, to sense." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #243 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 感 have?
感 is written with 13 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 感?
The radical associated with 感 is 心 (heart). This radical appears in many characters related to heart.
What are the components of 感?
感 is composed of: 咸 (structural), 心 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱咸心 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 感?
Common words with 感 include: 感觉 (gǎn jué, "feeling"); 感谢 (gǎn xiè, "to thank"); 感到 (gǎn dào, "to feel"); 性感 (xìng gǎn, "sex appeal"); 感受 (gǎn shòu, "to sense"). There are over 104 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 感 (gǎn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gǎn: 干 (dry), 敢 (to dare), 赶 (to overtake), 甘 ((bound form) sweet), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 感 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 感 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 感 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.