(tián): sweet

(tián) is a Chinese character meaning “sweet.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1991 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, something tasty 甘 to the tongue 舌. Its radical form (sweet) appears in many related characters such as (shèn, excessive), (gān, abbr. for Gansu Province 甘肅省|甘肃省).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. sweet

Etymology & Origin

ideographicSomething tasty 甘 to the tongue 舌

Decomposition: ⿰舌甘 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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
nountián pǐndessert5
suān tián kǔ làlit. sour, sweet, bitter and spicy (idiom)5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
tián mìsweet
tián měisweet
tián yán mì yǔ(idiom) sweet words
tián tousweet taste (of power, success etc)
tián shídessert
tián cài(sugar) beet
xiāng tiánfragrant and sweet
tián jiǔsweet liquor
tián wèisweetness
tián guāmuskmelon
tián mì mìvery sweet
gān tiánsweet
tián wèi jìsweetener (food additive)
yì kǔ sī tiánto view one's past as miserable and one's present as happy (idiom)
tián chéngsweet orange (Citrus sinensis)
57
Total compounds
63
As first character
30
As last character
7
As middle character

appears in 57 compound words: 63 as the first character, 30 as the last, and 7 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.

0.70926,007 co-occurrences
wèi
0.53611,125 co-occurrences
juān
0.4988,171 co-occurrences
0.4842,010 co-occurrences
xiàn
0.478372 co-occurrences
suān
0.4635,286 co-occurrences
guā
0.4582,838 co-occurrences
cài
0.4453,810 co-occurrences
zhī
0.4431,086 co-occurrences
chī
0.4292,892 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

suāntiánkǔlàHSK 4+

sour, sweet, bitter and spicy; all kinds of flavours; the joys and sorrows of life; the sweets and bitters of life

phrase
tiányánměiyǔHSK 4+

sweet words and honeyed phrases; cajolery

phrase
tiányánmìyǔHSK 6+

sweet words and honeyed phrases; cajolery

phrase
yìkǔsītiánHSK 4+

to recall one's difficult past and savour one's joyful present

phrase

Showing 4 of 5 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字在日常生活中使用频率中等。

tián zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ zhōng děng .

The character "甜" (sweet) is used moderately frequently in daily life.

三立新聞網Feb 2026

李栋旭见面会互动 郭书瑶笑嗨嗨全网炸

lǐ dòng xù jiàn miàn huì tián hù dòng guō shū 瑶 xiào 嗨 嗨 quán wǎng zhà

Li Dongxu's meeting was sweet and interactive, Guo Shuyao laughed and exploded

三立新聞網Feb 2026

范逸臣寒风守候 田中千绘喊很幸福

fàn yì chén hán fēng shǒu hòu tián zhōng qiān huì tián hǎn hěn xìng fú

Fan Yichen waited in the cold wind, and Chie Tanaka shouted sweetly that he was very happy

工商時報Feb 2026

草莓季点 缤纷层次引爆味蕾惊喜

cǎo 莓 jì tián diǎn bīn fēn céng cì yǐn bào wèi lěi jīng xǐ

Strawberry season desserts are colorful and surprising to the taste buds

99 健康网Feb 2026

麦芽糖醇是无糖食品吗?作为味剂被允许用于无糖产品对吗

mài yá táng chún shì wú táng shí pǐn ma ? zuò wéi tián wèi jì bèi yǔn xǔ yòng yú wú táng chǎn pǐn duì ma

Is maltitol a sugar free food? As a sweetener is allowed in sugar-free products, right?

Am730Feb 2026

英国奥斯卡|里安纳度“茶”大热倒灶 英国演员爆冷封帝 《一战再...

yīng guó ào sī kǎ lǐ ān nà dù tián chá dà rè dǎo zào yīng guó yǎn yuán bào lěng fēng dì yī zhàn zài . . .

British Oscar|Leonardo's "sweet tea" is a hit, and the British actor is upset and sealed the emperor "World War I again...

Tatoeba

我尽量留着胃吃点。

Wǒ jǐnliàng liú zhe wèi chī tiándiǎn.

I try to save room for dessert.

Tatoeba

我必须停止吃那么的冰激凌。

Wǒ bìxū tíngzhǐ chī nàme tián de bīngjīlíng.

I've got to stop eating such sweet ice cream.

Tatoeba

我被她美的声线迷倒了。

Wǒ bèi tā tiánměi de shēngxiàn mí dǎo le.

I was fascinated by her sweet voice.

Tatoeba

阿图什的无花果是蜜多汁的。

ātúshí de wúhuāguǒ shì tiánmì duōzhī de.

The figs of Atush are sweet and juicy.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the sweet radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced tián

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 甜 (tián) mean in Chinese?
甜 (tián) primarily means "sweet." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1991 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 甜 and 苦?
甜 (tián) and 苦 (kǔ) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 甜 (sweet) vs 苦 (bitter).
How many strokes does 甜 have?
甜 is written with 11 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 甜?
The radical associated with 甜 is 甘 (sweet). This radical appears in many characters related to sweet.
What are the components of 甜?
甜 is composed of: 舌 (structural), 甘 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰舌甘 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 甜?
Common words with 甜 include: 甜蜜 (tián mì, "sweet"); 甜美 (tián měi, "sweet"); 甜品 (tián pǐn, "dessert"); 甜言蜜语 (tián yán mì yǔ, "(idiom) sweet words"); 甜头 (tián tou, "sweet taste (of power, success etc)"). There are over 57 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 甜 (tián)?
Several characters share the pronunciation tián: 天 (day), 添 (to add), 田 (field), 填 (to fill in), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 甜 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 甜 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.