DICTIONARY
The Chinese word san - 三 - sān
(three in Chinese)
Phonetic script (Hanyu Pinyin)
sān
Listen to pronunciation
(Mandarin = standard Chinese without accent)
You're listening to the natural voice of a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese.
English translations
three, several, several times,
3
Chinese character and stroke order animation"How do I write 三 ( sān ) correctly?"
The strokes that all Chinese characters are composed of are to be written in a certain order which has originally been defined by Chinese calligraphy. Writing all characters according to the same rules assures that their intended shape and style are generally preserved even if written by different writers.
This dictionary shows you the correct stroke order as an animation for all characters so you can learn and understand how to write the character correctly. :
The strokes that all Chinese characters are composed of are to be written in a certain order which has originally been defined by Chinese calligraphy. Writing all characters according to the same rules assures that their intended shape and style are generally preserved even if written by different writers.
This dictionary shows you the correct stroke order as an animation for all characters so you can learn and understand how to write the character correctly. :
The traditional Chinese characters of sān are identical with the modern (simplified) characters displayed above.
Chinese Pinyin example sentence with 三 ( san / sān ) ⓘWriting in Pinyin
Before using this Pinyin example sentence, consider that Chinese characters should always be your first choice in written communication.
If you cannot use Chinese characters, it is preferable to use the Pinyin with tones. Only use the Pinyin without tones if there's no other option (e.g. writing a text message from/to a mobile phone that doesn't support special characters such as ā, í, ǒ, ù).
Before using this Pinyin example sentence, consider that Chinese characters should always be your first choice in written communication.
If you cannot use Chinese characters, it is preferable to use the Pinyin with tones. Only use the Pinyin without tones if there's no other option (e.g. writing a text message from/to a mobile phone that doesn't support special characters such as ā, í, ǒ, ù).
Wo you san ge haizi.
Wǒ yǒu sān ge háizi.– English translation: I have three children.
Topic
Learn 三 ( san / sān ) with our vocabulary trainer
Character complexity
三 is composed of 3 strokes and therefore is of very low complexity compared to the other simplified Chinese characters (average: 13.1 strokes).
Tags and additional information
(Meaning of individual characters, character components etc.)
三 ( san / sān ) belongs to the 100 most common Chinese characters (rank 94)
Chinese example words containing the character 三 ( san / sān )
Report missing or erroneous translation of san in English
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All words in this dictionary (more to come) were taken from the multimedia Chinese learning software Han Trainer Pro.
This Chinese-English dictionary is currently under development.
This Chinese-English dictionary is currently under development.
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Version 5.52 / Last updated: 2026-11-03