(zhuàn): to earn, to make a profit, to cheat

(zhuàn) is a Chinese character meaning “to earn.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2134 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, money. Its radical form (shell) appears in many related characters such as (guì, abbr. for Guizhou Province 貴州|贵州[Gui4 zhou1]), (, to bear), (, responsibility).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to earn
  2. to make a profit
  3. to cheat

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmoney

Decomposition: ⿰贝兼 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

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
zhuàn qiánto earn money
zhuàn qǔto make a profit
zhuàn touprofit (colloquial)
zhuàn huí laito earn back (money one invested, wasted etc)
zhuàn dà qiánto earn a fortune
zhuàn déto earn
wǎng zhuànto make money online
zhuàn yāo he(of a company) to gain recognition through promotional efforts
zhuàn hǒngto cheat
9
Total compounds
89
As first character
11
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 9 compound words: 89 as the first character, 11 as the last, and 0 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.

qián
0.6606,031 co-occurrences
0.4663,978 co-occurrences
rùn
0.440294 co-occurrences
mài
0.418282 co-occurrences
jìng
0.402156 co-occurrences
0.390210 co-occurrences
lèi
0.38054 co-occurrences
fàn
0.35948 co-occurrences
péi
0.35754 co-occurrences
yǎng
0.355228 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们字的发音和笔顺。

lǎo shī jiào wǒ men zhuàn zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .

The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of the character "赚."

EdigestFeb 2026

...陷低迷见红 靠“呢个玩法”逆市保平安兼稳

. . . xiàn dī mí jiàn hóng kào ne gè wán fǎ nì shì bǎo píng ān jiān wěn zhuàn

... Trapped in a downturn and seen red, rely on "this way of playing" to go against the market to keep safe and make steady profits

WorldjournalFeb 2026

日本猕猴Panchi让人心疼 IKEA到广告 16元玩偶全球卖翻

rì běn 猕 hóu P a n c h i ràng rén xīn téng I K E A zhuàn dào guǎng gào 1 6 yuán wán ǒu quán qiú mài fān

Japanese macaque Panchi is distressing, IKEA earns advertising, 16 yuan dolls are sold around the world

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

005010万想转高股息⋯她想改买0056、00...

0 0 5 0 zhuàn 1 0 wàn xiǎng zhuǎn gāo gǔ xī tā xiǎng gǎi mǎi 0 0 5 6 , 0 0 . . .

0050 earns 100,000 yuan and wants to turn into higher dividends⋯ She wants to buy 0056, 00 instead...

Am730Feb 2026

...IERRA SEA 原业主持货不足1年即“1球”|入伙盘成交

. . . I E R R A S E A yuán yè zhǔ chí huò bù zú 1 nián jí zhuàn 1 qiú rù huǒ pán chéng jiāo

... IERRA SEA The original owner of the goods earned "1 ball" in less than 1 year|Transaction of the partnership

百度新闻Feb 2026

订单爆了!90后男生春节可16万元

dìng dān bào le ! 9 0 hòu nán shēng chūn jié kě zhuàn 1 6 wàn yuán

The order is exploding! Post-90s boys can earn 160,000 yuan during the Spring Festival

Tatoeba

我一天一百欧元。

Wǒ yī tiān zhuàn yī bǎi ōuyuán.

I make €100 a day.

Tatoeba

他能多少就多少。

Tā néng zhuàn duōshao jiù zhuàn duōshao.

He earned as much money as possible.

Tatoeba

的薪水是我的两倍。

Tā zhuàn de xīnshuǐ shì wǒ de liǎngbèi.

He earns twice as much as me.

Tatoeba

保罗去年了很多钱。

Bǎoluó qùnián zhuàn le hěn duō qián.

Paul made a lot of money last year.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhuàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 赚 (zhuàn) mean in Chinese?
赚 (zhuàn) primarily means "to earn." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #2134 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 赚 and 嫌?
赚 (zhuàn) and 嫌 (xián) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 贝 vs 女 (same 兼 component).
How many strokes does 赚 have?
赚 is written with 14 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 赚?
The radical associated with 赚 is 贝 (shell). This radical appears in many characters related to shell.
What are the components of 赚?
赚 is composed of: 贝 (semantic), 兼 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰贝兼 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 赚?
Common words with 赚 include: 赚钱 (zhuàn qián, "to earn money"); 赚取 (zhuàn qǔ, "to make a profit"); 赚头 (zhuàn tou, "profit (colloquial)"); 赚回来 (zhuàn huí lai, "to earn back (money one invested, wasted etc)"); 赚大钱 (zhuàn dà qián, "to earn a fortune"). There are over 9 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 赚 (zhuàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhuàn: 专 (for a particular person, occasion, purpose), 砖 (brick), 转 (to turn, to transfer), 撰 (to compose). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 赚 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 赚 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.