帆 (fān) — sail (of a boat) | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

帆 is the noun for the cloth sail of a boat — it pairs naturally with 帆船 ('sailboat'). For the action of sailing use the verb 航行, not 帆.

noun

sail (of a boat)

Measure word · 面

Easily confused

翻fānsound-aliketo turn over, to flip
番fānsound-alike(classifier) for occurrences of an event, action, or speech utterance, often implying a whole round or period

Examples

帆。
Chuán shàng de fān bèi fēng chuī dé gǔ gǔ de.
The sail on the boat was puffed up by the wind.
帆。
Shuǐ shǒu men zhèng zài shōu fān.
The sailors are furling the sail.
帆。
Zhè sōu chuán de fān shì hóng sè de.
This boat's sail is red.

Origin

Sound + meaning

六书liùshū

形声xíngshēng

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

巾凡帆

Meaning part形符xíngfú

巾巾jīncloth

Sound part声符shēngfú

凡

凡fán帆fān

Same sound today

帆 pairs 巾 (cloth) with 凡, which gives the sound fán.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 7-9 Boats & Water Travel

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