欠 (qiàn) is a Chinese character meaning “to owe (money, a favour)”. It is written from ⺈ (top form of 刀 (knife); a short slash with a turning stroke tucked under it) and 人 (person), one above the other, and takes 4 strokes.
Build the character for “to owe; to lack”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
⺈ + 人
Top–bottom structure
Structure from: Unicode IDS ⿱⺈人, checked against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph strokes (2 + 2 = 4)
Memory aid
A person (人) stands underneath, with a bent shape (⺈) tipped over their head — head thrown back, mouth open in a yawn. Short on sleep, short on everything: 欠.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
4 strokes
In real words
- 欠债qiàn zhàito be in debt; to owe money欠 = qiàn
- 欠款qiàn kuǎnan outstanding balance; money still owed欠 = qiàn
- 哈欠hā qiàna yawn欠 = qiànspoken ashā qian
Go deeper
All readings
to owe; to lack
to owe (money, a favour); to be short of, to lack; to raise slightly (the body)
借了别人的钱或东西还没有还；缺少、不够。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 欠债qiàn zhàito be in debt; to owe money欠 = qiàn
- 欠款qiàn kuǎnan outstanding balance; money still owed欠 = qiàn
- 哈欠hā qiàna yawn欠 = qiànspoken ashā qian
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 欠 mean?
欠 (qiàn) means to owe (money, a favour); to be short of, to lack; to raise slightly (the body).
How do you pronounce 欠?
It is pronounced qiàn.
What parts is 欠 made of?
⺈ (top form of 刀 (knife); a short slash with a turning stroke tucked under it) and 人 (person), one above the other. The recorded source is: Unicode IDS ⿱⺈人, checked against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph strokes (2 + 2 = 4). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 欠 have?
4. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 欠?
欠. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 欠?
Common ones are 欠债 and 欠款. The reading of 欠 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.