(kǎn) - to chop, to cut down, to hack in Mandarin
kǎnTraditional: 砍
Translation
to chop, to cut down, to hack
Word origin
A phono-semantic character: 石 (shí, stone) gives the sense of a heavy striking edge and 欠 (qiàn) gives the sound.
- Origin
- phono-semantic
- Root
- 石 (shí, stone) + 欠 (qiàn, phonetic)
Stroke order
砍
Examples
木。
He is chopping wood in the yard.
棵。
That tree has been cut down.
。
Be careful not to cut your hand.
。
He hacked the rope open with a knife.
预。
The company cut the budget in half.
砍 (kǎn) is to chop with a swung blade: an axe into a log, a cleaver through a bone, a machete at undergrowth. The force is downward and repeated, which is what separates it from 切 (qiē, to slice) and 剪 (jiǎn, to cut with scissors).
It has the same budget-slashing metaphor English does. 砍价 is to haggle a price down, 砍预算 is to cut a budget, and 被砍了 said of a television series means it was axed. That figurative range makes it far more common in modern speech than its woodland origins suggest.
The trap is picking it for ordinary cutting. You do not 砍 paper, hair or a cake. If a blade is being drawn rather than swung, you want 切.
Where this fits
Used in
Stories
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砍: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "砍" (to chop, to cut down, to hack): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 50.