Comparing "jian" and "kan"

Both 见 (jiàn) and 看 (kàn) are often used in informal and formal settings to mean “to meet” or “to see someone”. 见 (jiàn) can also mean to “meet up with” someone, while 看 (kàn) can also mean to watch, to read, or to look at, and even has a special use for visiting the doctor.

	见 (jiàn)	看 (kàn)
Meaning	to meet someone	to watch, to read, to look at, to visit
Part of Speech	verb	verb
Formality	flexible	flexible

To say "to read," "to watch," or "to look at" use 看 (kàn)

To describe a situation in which someone is reading a book, watching tv, taking in a sporting event or performance on tv or in person, or even enjoying the scenery only 看 (kàn) can be used, meaning "to watch" or "to look at."

Common Phrases

• 看 书
• 看 电影
• 看 手机
• 看 风景

Example Sentences

• 我 很 喜欢 看 书。
• 他 不 想 工作，他 想 看 手机。
• 昨天 我 去 看 电影 了。
• 我 喜欢 旅游，因为 我 想 看 风景。

To say "to visit the doctor" use 看 (kàn)

Although this is a special use of 看 (kàn), it pretty easy to understand, if you have an appointment with the doctor or to need to pay a visit to the doctor because of sickness or an ailment use 看 (kàn).

Set Phrases

• 看 病
• 看 医生

Example Sentences

• 他 身体 有点 不舒服，他 明天 去 看 病 。
• 我 昨天 去 看 医生 了。

To say "to meet with" someone use 见 (jiàn)

If you want to describe a situation in which you go and see someone in person, use 见 (jiàn).

Common Phrases

• 见 朋友
• 见 老师
• 去 见 你 qù kàn nǐ go see you

Example Sentences

• 今天 晚上 我 会 去 见 朋友 。
• 下课之后我要去见朋友。
• 你今天要去见她吗？
• 今天不能和你一起去吃饭了，我要去见客户。

To say to meet up with someone use 见 (jiàn)

Common Phrases

Meeting up (i.e., getting together, a rendezvous) with someone is often used in fixed phrases, often resembling the English pattern “see you tomorrow”, “see you next time”, etc.

• 明天 见
• 下次 见
• 好 久 不 见

Example Sentences

While 见 (jiàn) is used in fixed phrases to mean “meeting up”, it can also be independently to mean “meet up” in the sense of have an encounter or have interaction with someone.

• 我们 下 星期 见。
• 我 和 朋友 明天 晚上 见。
• 他 今天 非常 忙 ， 没 时间 见 你 了 。
• 十 年 没 见 他 ， 他 的 变化 很 大 。
• 虽然 我们 俩 都 在 成都，但是 我 很 忙，没时间 见 他。
• 那个 女孩儿 很 好，见 过 她 的 人 都 很 喜欢 她。

To say to visit someone use 看 (kàn)

If you want to describe a situation in which you visit someone, as in going on a vacation to see relatives or visiting someone in their home to catch up, etc. use 看 (kàn). These imply the purpose of the visit includes inquiries into someone else’s health and well-being.

Look above (specifically 见 (jiàn) used in the sense of “to see someone”) and you can see that here 看 (kàn) and 见 (jiàn)’s use and example sentences are all very similar; just remember, using 看 (kàn) emphasizes to visit and includes a taking into consideration someone else’s health and well-being, and that in this context 看 (kàn) is not as commonly used as 见 (jiàn).

Common Phrases

• 看 家人
• 看 朋友
• 看 老师
• 去 看 你 qù kàn nǐ go visit you

Example Sentences

• 我们要利用暑假去 看 家人。
• 我们今天去南京 看 朋友。
• 我去 看 你。
• 我 听说 她 最近 不开心，我 想 去 看 她。
• 张老师来我们家 看 我们。

To say to catch sight of something/someone both 见 (jiàn) and 看 (kàn) can be used interchangeably and have the same meaning

Think of something like this… you’re in a crowd, you can see your friends, but they can’t see you, or you see someone at the store from afar, but they don’t see you, even something like your friend finally sees you in a big crowd after you have been yelling their name repeatedly… In these situations, it’s fair to use “catch sight of” to describe what’s going on, and in such circumstances both 见 (jiàn) and 看 (kàn) can be used interchangeably and mean the same thing.

Pattern

见/看 + 到 + (“something”, often not said) + 了 （most times)

Example Sentences

• 我 看 到了。
• 小李 见 到了。

Pattern

见/看 + 不到 + (“something”, often not said)

Example Sentences

• 小李 看 不到。
• 我 见 不到。

Pattern

见/看 + 到 + person + 了 （most times)

Example Sentences

• 昨天在买东西的时候，我们 看 到了校长。
• 小刘 见 到你了，你别喊他吧。

Pattern

见/看 + 不到 + person

Example Sentences

• 老王 看 不到我们。
• 你在用大声喊他的名字，他为什么 见 不到你？

看见 (kànjiàn) is a combination of 见 (jiàn) and 看 (kàn) and is also used to say to catch sight of something/someone

Ok, now we know that both 见 (jiàn) and 看 (kàn) can be used interchangeably to mean “to catch sight of”; notably, these two words can be combined into one word, 看见 kànjiàn, that has the same meaning.

Pattern

• 没有 看见
• 看 不 见

Example Sentences

• 我 看见 了 一 只 猫。
• 不 好意思，我 没有 看见 你。
• 昨天 我 在 超市 看见 了 他，但是 他 没有 看见 我 。
• 你 能 看见 我 吗？我 看 不 见 你。（视频的时候）
• 这里 人 太 多 了，我 什么 也 看 不 见。