建 (jiàn): to establish, to found, to set up
建 (jiàn) is a Chinese character meaning “to establish.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 廴 (semantic) and 聿 (phonetic). It ranks #244 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 建 action. Its radical form 廴 (stride) appears in many related characters such as 延 (yán, to prolong), 廷 (tíng, palace courtyard).
Definitions
- to establish
- to found
- to set up
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 建 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
HSK Vocabulary with 建
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | HSK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 建议verb/noun | jiàn yì | to propose | 4 |
| 建立verb | jiàn lì | to establish | 5 |
| 建筑verb/noun | jiàn zhù | to construct | 5 |
| 建造verb | jiàn zào | to construct | 5 |
| 重建verb | chóng jiàn | to rebuild | 6 |
| 建筑物noun | jiàn zhù wù | building | 6 |
| 建设verb | jiàn shè | to build | 5 |
| 创建verb | chuàng jiàn | to found | 6 |
| 修建verb | xiū jiàn | to build | 5 |
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 建筑师noun | jiàn zhù shī | architect |
| 组建verb | zǔ jiàn | to organize |
| 建成verb | jiàn chéng | to establish |
| 建设性noun | jiàn shè xìng | constructive |
| 构建verb | gòu jiàn | to construct (sth abstract) |
| 改建verb | gǎi jiàn | to rebuild |
| 新建adjective | xīn jiàn | new construction |
| 建筑学noun | jiàn zhù xué | architectural |
| 搭建verb | dā jiàn | to build (esp. with simple materials) |
| 建国verb | jiàn guó | to found a country |
| 兴建verb | xīng jiàn | to build |
| 建材noun | jiàn cái | building materials |
| 扩建verb | kuò jiàn | to extend (a building, an airport runway etc) |
| 创建者 | chuàng jiàn zhě | founder |
| 筹建verb | chóu jiàn | to prepare to build sth |
建 appears in 100 compound words: 58 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 9 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 建 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (7)
Example Sentences
建字由9笔画组成，结构很巧妙。
jiàn zì yóu bǐ huà zǔ chéng , jié gòu hěn qiǎo miào .
The character "建" consists of nine strokes, with a remarkably ingenious structure.
内塔尼亚胡宣布组建针对穆斯林的新联盟
nèi tǎ ní yà hú xuān bù zǔ jiàn zhēn duì mù sī lín de xīn lián méng
Netanyahu announced the formation of a new coalition against Muslims
福建女孩扶起骑车摔倒老人 遭索赔人民币22万...
fú jiàn nǚ hái fú qǐ qí chē shuāi dǎo lǎo rén zāo suǒ péi rén mín bì 2 2 wàn . . .
Fujian girl helped up and fell on a bicycle and fell to the old man and was claimed RMB 220,000...
油品、建案双引擎全开 北基下步锁定绿能
yóu pǐn , jiàn àn shuāng yǐn qíng quán kāi běi jī xià bù suǒ dìng lǜ néng
The dual engines of oil products and construction projects are fully open, and the next step of the North Base is to lock in green energy
高标准高质量推进雄安新区建设现代化城市丨雄安新区新..
gāo biāo zhǔn gāo zhì liàng tuī jìn xióng ān xīn qū jiàn shè xiàn dài huà chéng shì 丨 xióng ān xīn qū xīn . .
Promote the construction of Xiong'an New Area into a modern city with high standards and high quality丨Xiong'an New Area New:
(新春走基层)福建屏南:古桥“万安”横碧水 乡宴“..
( xīn chūn zǒu jī céng ) fú jiàn bǐng nán : gǔ qiáo wàn ān héng bì shuǐ xiāng yàn . .
(New Year at the grassroots level) Pingnan, Fujian: Guqiao "Wan'an" Hengbi Water Township Banquet":
汤姆提出其他建议了吗？
Tāngmǔ tíchū qítā jiànyì le ma?
Did Tom give any other suggestions?
这座寺庙是何时建的呢？
Zhè zuò sìmiào shì héshí jiàn de ne?
When was this temple built?
罗马不是一天建成的。
Luómǎ bù shì yī tiān jiànchéng de.
Rome wasn't built in a day.
他的医生建议他戒烟。
Tā de yīshēng jiànyì tā jièyān.
His doctor advised him to quit smoking.
Character Family
Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 廴 (action) component
廴 Radical Family — Characters sharing the stride radical
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 建 (jiàn) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 建 and 下?
How many strokes does 建 have?
What is the radical of 建?
What are the components of 建?
What are common words containing 建?
What characters sound the same as 建 (jiàn)?
Is 建 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 建 with real-time feedback
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