餐
cān
In Chinese, the word for meal is 餐 (cān). Wiktionary also lists 飯 / 饭 (fàn).
Meaning: food that is prepared and eaten (noun)
Ways to say it
| Chinese | Romanization (Wiktionary) |
|---|---|
| 餐 | cān |
| 飯 / 饭 | fàn |
The term 餐 is a generic and widely used formal term for meal in Chinese. In daily life, you will see it used in compound words to specify which meal you are eating, such as 早餐 (breakfast), 午餐 (lunch) and 晚餐 (dinner). To say 'to have a meal' or 'to eat' in a general sense, the most common verb phrase is 吃饭.
Which one should you use?
There are two main ways to refer to a meal: 餐 and 饭. The form 餐 is more formal and is often used in written language or compound words like 'breakfast/lunch/dinner'. In contrast, 饭 means 'rice' but is colloquially used to refer to a meal in general.
How do you pronounce it?
cān
Did you know?
- In Chinese culture, asking 你吃饭了吗? ('Have you eaten?') is often used as a friendly greeting rather than a literal question about hunger.
- The formal word for meal, 餐, originally meant 'to swallow' in ancient times.
Examples in context
- 我们一日三餐。We eat a meal three times a day.This sentence is useful for stating how many meals you eat per day using 餐.Tatoeba #1416068 by sadhen, translation #23100 by slyfin
- 我們在晚上九點時吃晚餐。We have our evening meal at 9 here.This sentence is useful for specifying the time of a dinner using 餐.Tatoeba #1304154 by tsayng, translation #464394 by lukaszpp
- 萨米和蕾拉一起吃了家庭晚餐。Sami joined Layla for a family meal.This sentence is useful for describing a family meal using 餐.Tatoeba #8748564 by cxpadonis, translation #6692721 by OsoHombre
- 吃一顿丰盛的晚饭 (chī yí dùn fēngshèng de wǎnfàn)Have a hearty dinner
- 咱们吃顿好的吧 (zánmen chī dùn hǎo de ba)Let's have a good meal
- 我今天晚上不想做饭 (wǒ jīntiān wǎnshàng bùxiǎng zuò fàn)I don't want to cook dinner tonight
- 9 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Zihan and Zhiqiang are discussing their dinner plans.
- 梓涵 Zihan你想要什么样的晚餐？Nǐ xiǎng yào shén me yàng de wǎn cān?What kind of dinner do you want?
- 志强 Zhiqiang我想吃简单的餐点。Wǒ xiǎng chī jiǎn dān de cān diǎn.I want to eat a simple meal.
- 梓涵 Zihan那我们随便吃一餐吧。Nà wǒ men suí biàn chī yī cān ba.Then let's just have a casual meal.
- 志强 Zhiqiang好，听你的，梓涵。Hǎo, tīng nǐ de, Zǐ hán.Okay, I'll listen to you, Zihan.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “meal” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries 飯, 餐, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
