三 — three; 3
- Pinyin
- sān · Sān
- Strokes
- 3
- HSK level
- HSK 1
- Handwriting
- required
This character has more than one reading — sān, Sān — and the pronunciation depends on the word it appears in. The list below gives the syllabus reading for each word.
How to write 三: 3 strokes
Each cell adds one stroke to the previous ones, with the new stroke in red. Stroke order is not decoration: it sets the proportions of the character and makes handwriting legible to a reader. This character is on the HSK handwriting list, so the exam expects you to write it, not only recognise it.
Words with 三 in the HSK syllabus: 9
Every word in the official 2026 syllabus that contains this character, with the level it is introduced at. Learning a character pays off through these: each one combines with the characters you already know.
- 三sānthree; 3HSK 1
- 再三zàisānover and over again; again and againHSK 6
- 丢三落四diūsān-làsìforgetful; empty-headedHSK 7–9
- 接二连三jiē’èr-liánsānone after another; in quick successionHSK 7–9
- 举一反三jǔyī-fǎnsānto raise one and infer threeHSK 7–9
- 三番五次sānfān-wǔcìover and over againHSK 7–9
- 三角sānjiǎotriangle; trigonometryHSK 7–9
- 三维sānwéithree-dimensional; 3DHSK 7–9
- 朝三暮四zhāosān-mùsìlit. say three in the morning but four in the evening; to change sth that is already settled uponHSK 7–9
Glosses come from CC-CEDICT, used under CC BY-SA 4.0, and are the dictionary’s first sense rather than a translation chosen for context.