fān
verb HSK 4 #1,628

Meanings

  1. 1 to turn over; to flip
  2. 2 to rummage through; to search through
  3. 3 to translate (informal)

Characters

Contains (feather/wing), evoking the image of a bird flipping its wings — hence "to turn over."

Examples

Qǐng fān dào dì shí yè.
Please turn to page ten.
Tā bǎ shū fān le yī biàn.
He flipped through the book once.
Fēng bǎ zhuōzi dōu fān le.
The wind flipped the table over.
Bié fān wǒ de dōngxi!
Don't rummage through my stuff!

Tips

usage
is incredibly versatile: (flip pages), 翻译 (translate), 翻身 (turn over in bed / turn one's life around), 翻脸 (turn hostile). The core idea is always 'turning/flipping.'

Stroke Order

fān