(qiǎn): shallow

(qiǎn) is a Chinese character meaning “shallow.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1705 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, water. Its radical form (water) appears in many related characters such as (shuǐ, water), (hàn, Han ethnic group), (, steam).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. shallow

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵戋 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
fū qiǎnsuperficial
qiǎn bósuperficial
gē qiǎnto be stranded (of ship)
shòu yì fěi qiǎnto benefit (from)
mù guāng duǎn qiǎnto be shortsighted
qiǎn sèlight color
qiǎn shuǐshallow water
qiǎn tānshallows
qiǎn xiǎn(of written or spoken material) easy to understand
hài rén bù qiǎn(idiom) (usu. of behaviors, systems or trends etc) to cause people tremendous harm
shēn qiǎndeep or shallow
qiǎn hǎishallow sea
duǎn qiǎnnarrow and shallow
qiǎn cháng zhé zhǐlit. to stop after taking just a sip (idiom)
cū qiǎnshallow
52
Total compounds
62
As first character
31
As last character
8
As middle character

appears in 52 compound words: 62 as the first character, 31 as the last, and 8 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.

0.7246,828 co-occurrences
tān
0.5493,468 co-occurrences
0.5271,809 co-occurrences
qiū
0.5074,992 co-occurrences
lán
0.5063,774 co-occurrences
0.48822,506 co-occurrences
绿
0.4873,012 co-occurrences
zōng
0.4831,908 co-occurrences
huī
0.4512,616 co-occurrences
yán
0.4471,500 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (9)

cáishūxuéqiǎnHSK 7+

to be of humble talent and shallow learning

phrase
hàirénbùqiǎnHSK 5+

to cause great harm to people

phrase
jiāoqiǎnyánshēnHSK 5+

to have deep conversations with an acquaintance

phrase
mùguāngduǎnqiǎnHSK 5+

short-sighted; myopic; lacking foresight

phrase
qiǎn xiǎn yì dǒngHSK 5+

(idiom) easy to understand

phrase
yǎn pí zi qiǎnHSK 5+

short-sighted

phrase
zhōng tú gē qiǎnHSK 7+

to run aground in mid-course; to run into difficulty and stop

phrase
qiǎnchángzhézhǐHSK 5+

to stop after getting a little knowledge of a subject and not study further or deeper

phrase

Showing 8 of 9 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这片海滩的水很,走出一百米远水深才到腰部。

Zhè piàn hǎitān de shuǐ hěn qiǎn, zǒu chū yìbǎi mǐ yuǎn shuǐshēn cái dào yāobù.

The water at this beach is very shallow; you have to walk one hundred meters out before the water reaches waist depth.

Orientaldaily MyMar 2026

班台2河口河床日 黄渼沄:引发生态问题

bān tái 2 hé kǒu hé chuáng rì qiǎn huáng 渼 沄 : yǐn fā shēng tài wèn tí

The estuary bed of Pantai 2 is shallow Huang Meiyun: causing ecological problems

EttodayFeb 2026

快讯/23:49宜兰近海规模4.4“极层地震” 最大震度4级

kuài xùn 2 3 : 4 9 yí lán jìn hǎi guī mó 4 . 4 jí qiǎn céng dì zhèn zuì dà zhèn dù 4 jí

News/23:49 Yilan offshore magnitude 4.4 "extremely shallow earthquake" maximum seismic intensity 4

NewsFeb 2026

视帝真田广之怒吼“给我过来!”野忠信回归决一死战

shì dì zhēn tián guǎng zhī nù hǒu gěi wǒ guò lái ! qiǎn yě zhōng xìn huí guī jué yī sǐ zhàn

Emperor Sanada Hiroyuki roared, "Come over to me!" Tadanobu Asano returns to fight to the death

NewsFeb 2026

小虎鲸屏东搁4死 7只获救野放

xiǎo hǔ jīng bǐng dōng gē qiǎn sǐ zhī huò jiù yě fàng

Baby killer whales ran aground in Pingtung, 4 died, and 7 were rescued and released into the wild

NewsFeb 2026

从经理心腹变边缘主管?资女上司带不动部属 网友直指重点

cóng jīng lǐ xīn fù biàn biān yuán zhǔ guǎn ? zī qiǎn nǚ shàng sī dài bù dòng bù shǔ wǎng yǒu zhí zhǐ chóng diǎn

From Manager's Right-Hand Woman to Marginalized Supervisor? Inexperienced Female Boss Struggles to Lead Team—Netizens Pinpoint the Crux

Tatoeba

他在工作中经验尚

Tā zài gōngzuò zhōng jīngyàn shàng qiǎn.

He is still green at the job.

Tatoeba

一条受伤的鲸鱼在海滩边搁了。

Yī tiáo shòushāng de jīngyú zài hǎitān biān gēqiǎn le.

A wounded whale washed up on the beach.

Tatoeba

他用显的英语演讲。

Tā yòng qiǎnxiǎn de Yīngyǔ yǎnjiǎng.

He made a speech in plain English.

Tatoeba

我睡觉很,容易醒。

Wǒ shuìjiào hěn qiǎn, róngyì xǐng.

I'm a light sleeper.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced qiǎn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 浅 (qiǎn) mean in Chinese?
浅 (qiǎn) primarily means "shallow." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1705 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 浅 and 深?
浅 (qiǎn) and 深 (shēn) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 浅 (shallow) vs 深 (deep).
How many strokes does 浅 have?
浅 is written with 8 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 浅?
The radical associated with 浅 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 浅?
浅 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 戋 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵戋 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 浅?
Common words with 浅 include: 肤浅 (fū qiǎn, "superficial"); 浅薄 (qiǎn bó, "superficial"); 搁浅 (gē qiǎn, "to be stranded (of ship)"); 受益匪浅 (shòu yì fěi qiǎn, "to benefit (from)"); 目光短浅 (mù guāng duǎn qiǎn, "to be shortsighted"). There are over 52 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 浅 (qiǎn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation qiǎn: 钱 (money), 千 (thousand), 迁 (to move), 牵 (to lead along), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 浅 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 浅 and the traditional form is 淺.

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.