(dàn) - but, however in Mandarin

dàn

Traditional: 但

HSK 2

#44 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

but, however

Word origin

但 is a phono-semantic compound: 亻 (the person radical) gives a general human-action sense and 旦 (dàn) supplies the sound. It was borrowed as the adversative conjunction 'but, however'.

Origin: phono-semantic compound
Root: 亻 (rén, person radical) + 旦 (dàn, phonetic)

Stroke order

但

Examples

，。

I want to go, but I do not have time.

，。

He is very clever but does not work hard.

，。

It is expensive, but the thing is very good.

，。

He is tired, but is still pressing on.

，。

The matter is small, but very important.

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Appears in 1 word

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 但.

但是dàn shìbut, however (formal)

Used in

Grammar articles

(11)

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Mandarin · Free printables

但: worksheet, infographic and listicle

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This word is part of lesson 1.