劝

勸

quàn

verb HSK 5 #3,260

Meanings

1 to advise
2 to urge
3 to persuade

Characters

劝

quàn

to advise; to urge; to persuade

Examples

我劝他不要抽烟了。

Wǒ quàn tā búyào chōuyān le.

I advised him to stop smoking.

她怎么劝都没有用。

Tā zěnme quàn dōu méiyǒu yòng.

No matter how she tried to persuade, it was useless.

朋友们都劝我去看医生。

Péngyoumen dōu quàn wǒqù kàn yīshēng.

My friends all urged me to see a doctor.

Tips

grammar

劝 + person + (不要) + verb: 劝他别去 (advise him not to go), 劝她多休息 (urge her to rest more).

culture

劝酒 (quàn jiǔ, to urge someone to drink) is a major part of Chinese banquet culture. Refusing can be awkward, but saying 我开车 (I'm driving) is the magic escape.

Components

radical

力 lì

strength; force

Right indexing strength radical — marks 劝 as an action requiring effort: pushing, exerting, applying pressure to convince someone. The radical anchors the effort-and-encouragement family alongside 努 (strive), 助 (help), 劳 (labour), 勉 (encourage). Persuading takes work.

phonetic

又 yòu

right hand (here phonetic substitute)

Left 又 — a simplified replacement for the traditional phonetic 雚 (guàn, 17 strokes). Supplies a near-sound for quàn through cursive shorthand convention. The traditional 勸 keeps the 17-stroke 雚 phonetic on the left; the simplified 劝 substitutes the 2-stroke 又 for ease of writing, sacrificing the literal sound link for stroke economy.

Stroke Order

劝 quàn

劝