喘 (chuǎn): to pant; to gasp for breath

Meanings

1 to pant; to gasp for breath

Characters

喘

chuǎn

to pant; to gasp for breath

Examples

HSK 5

跑完步他喘得厉害。

Pǎo wán bù tā chuǎn de lìhai.

He was panting heavily after the run.

HSK 7-9

爬到山顶，我累得直喘。

Pá dào shāndǐng, wǒ lèi de zhí chuǎn.

By the time I reached the summit, I was gasping non-stop.

HSK 7-9

让我喘口气再说。

Ràng wǒ chuǎn kǒuqì zàishuō.

Let me catch my breath first.

Tips

usage

喘口气 literally means "gasp a breath" but is commonly used figuratively to mean "take a break / get some breathing room" - 最近太忙了，都没时间喘口气 (Been so busy lately, haven't had time to catch my breath).

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

Mouth radical on the left - the indexing radical. It supplies the meaning: 喘 is the gasping/panting that comes through the mouth. Same radical heads a huge family of mouth-actions and sound-words (吃, 喊, 唱, 叫), and here it firmly marks 喘 as something done with the breath.

phonetic

耑 duān

tip; sprout

耑 (duān) supplies the sound, drifting initial and tone to chuǎn. The same phonetic stem feeds 端 (extremity, proper) and 揣 (estimate). In 喘 it is purely sonic - the picture is mouth + sprout-shape, and only the 口 carries semantic weight.