碗 (wǎn) · bowl

Meanings

1 bowl

Characters

碗

wǎn

bowl

Contains 石 (stone) - bowls were originally stone vessels.

Examples

HSK 1

请给我一碗米饭。

Qǐng gěi wǒ yì wǎn mǐfàn.

Please give me a bowl of rice.

HSK 2

吃完饭要洗碗。

Chī wán fàn yào xǐ wǎn.

You need to wash the dishes after eating.

HSK 4

碗里还有汤。

Wǎn lǐ hái yǒu tāng.

There is still soup in the bowl.

Tips

usage

碗 is both a noun (bowl) and a measure word for bowls of food: 一碗饭 (a bowl of rice), 两碗面 (two bowls of noodles). 洗碗 means "to wash dishes" - not just bowls.

culture

In Chinese dining etiquette, you should never stick your chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice - it resembles incense sticks at a funeral and is considered very bad luck.

Components

radical

石 shí

stone; rock

Left indexing stone radical 石 (Kangxi #112) - pictograph of a rock under an overhang. Anchors 碗 in the stone / hard-material family alongside 砖 (brick), 碎 (shatter), 磁 (magnet). Bowls were originally hewn from stone or fired clay before porcelain became common, so the radical reflects the material rather than the shape.

phonetic

宛 wǎn

as if; winding

Right component supplies the sound: 宛 wǎn → wǎn (exact match). Adds a faint semantic flavour - 宛 means 'curving / hollow under a roof,' exactly the shape of a bowl: a curved hollow vessel. Same phonetic in 婉 wǎn (graceful), 腕 wàn (wrist), 惋 wǎn (regret).