Kilo Lingo

(wǔ cān) - lunch, midday meal in Mandarin

cān

Traditional: 午餐

#2102 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

lunch, midday meal

Word origin

A compound of 午 (wǔ, noon, the seventh earthly branch) and 餐 (cān, a meal), matching 早餐 and 晚餐.

Origin
compound
Root
午 (wǔ, noon) + 餐 (cān, meal)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 午

Stroke order for 餐

Examples

We have lunch at twelve.

Today's lunch is rice and fish.

He treated me to lunch.

The lunch break is only half an hour.

The school provides free lunches.

午餐 is lunch, and it belongs to the tidy 餐 set: 早餐, 午餐, 晚餐. Alongside it runs a second, more everyday set built on 饭: 早饭, 午饭, 晚饭. The meaning is identical.

The difference is register. 餐 is the slightly more formal word, at home on menus, school notices, hotel signs and anything written down. 饭 is what people actually say to each other: 吃午饭了吗? sounds natural in a way that 吃午餐了吗? does not, unless you are in an office or a restaurant.

The verb is 吃, not 有 or 拿: you 吃午餐. And note 餐 also does duty as the measure word for meals in 一日三餐 (three meals a day), which is a useful phrase to have ready.

Where this fits

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Mandarin · Free printables

午餐: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "午餐" (lunch, midday meal): 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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This word is part of lesson 43.