(wǔ cān) - lunch, midday meal in Mandarin
wǔcānTraditional: 午餐
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
午
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.
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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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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 43.