看
kàn
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
To look at, to watch, to read. One verb covers whatever the eyes do on purpose: 看电影 'watch a film', 看书 'read a book', 看朋友 'visit a friend'. Catching sight of something is 看见 'to see'.
Nhìn, xem, đọc: dùng mắt để theo dõi một thứ gì. Một động từ này ứng với nhiều từ tiếng Việt: 看电影 (xem phim), 看书 (đọc sách), 看朋友 (thăm bạn). Còn “nhìn thấy” là 看见.
VerbRegister: neutral
Examples
Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check
Sources & notes
Hán-Việt bridge batch 063 (2026-11-14). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ · No Vietnamese entry is linked as its twin; the Hán-Việt reading is given character by character. Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.
Common questions
What does “看” mean?
To look at, to watch, to read. One verb covers whatever the eyes do on purpose: 看电影 'watch a film', 看书 'read a book', 看朋友 'visit a friend'. Catching sight of something is 看见 'to see'.
Is “看” formal or informal?
看 is generally neutral.