看 (kàn): to see; to look at

Meanings

1 to see; to look at
2 to read
3 to watch
4 to visit; to call on
5 to consider; to regard as
6 to treat (a patient)
7 to depend on
8 to give it a try

Characters

Top 手 (hand) over bottom 目 (eye) - the iconic gesture of shading the eyes to peer into the distance. One of the cleanest compound ideographs in the script.

Examples

HSK 1

看！那是什么？

Kàn! Nà shì shénme?

Look! What is that?

HSK 1

我在看书。

Wǒ zài kàn shū.

I'm reading a book.

HSK 1

你看电视了吗？

Nǐ kàn diànshì le ma?

Did you watch TV?

HSK 1

明天我要去看朋友。

Míngtiān wǒ yào qù kàn péngyou.

Tomorrow I'm going to visit a friend.

HSK 2

让我看看。

Ràng wǒ kànkàn.

Let me take a look.

Tips

usage

Wildly versatile verb: 看书 (read a book), 看电视 (watch TV), 看病 (see a doctor), 看朋友 (visit a friend). The reduplicated form 看看 softens it to 'take a quick look'.

mistakes

Two readings: kàn (4th tone, this entry) = look / read / watch / visit / consider; kān (1st tone, sister entry) = guard / look after. As a rule of thumb, when 看 means "watch over to protect" (a door, a house, a patient, prisoners), it's kān; everywhere else it's kàn. Compounds: 看电影 kàn, 看护 kān.

Components

radical

目 mù

eye

Bottom indexing eye radical. Pictograph of a vertical eye (rotated 90° from its original horizontal orientation in oracle bone script). With the hand sheltering it from above, the whole character is "hand + eye = look". Same family: 眼 (eye), 睡 (sleep), 瞎 (blind), 瞄 (aim), 瞪 (stare).

semantic

手 shǒu

hand

Top component - the flattened "hand-on-top" form of 手. Depicts a hand raised to the brow, shading the eyes from glare. This is the iconic gesture of peering into the distance, exactly the meaning of 看. One of the cleanest two-element compound ideographs in the script.