The Chinese character 巴
And its component form
巴
bā
- to long for
- to wish
- close to
- next to
巴 is both a character and a character component
巴 can be used as a phonetic component in a Chinese character. You’ll find the Chinese character component 巴 in characters and words pronounced “ba”.
These characters all contain 巴 and sound like “ba”:
疤
bā
scar
靶
bǎ
target; mark
笆
bā
an article made of bamboo strips; fence
把
bǎ
to hold; to grasp; to contain
When used as a character component, 巴 can also be found in words pronounced “pa”, which is close to the sound “ba”.
The Chinese language is over 5000 years old, so, unsurprisingly, some characters’ pronunciations have evolved a little over time. Chinese characters containing 巴 will therefore sometimes have a pronunciation close to the sound 巴 but not quite the same. You’ll also characters that contain 巴 and are pronounced “pa”.
Sound “pa”
You can find the character component 巴 being pronounced “pa” in words like:
爬 pá : to crawl; to climb; to get up or sit up
跁 pá : to squat; to crouch
All 80,000+ Chinese characters share the same character components. Chinese character components are therefore essential for Chinese learners: they are the building blocks of Chinese. Character character components help tremendously with understanding a character: they provide information on its meaning or on its pronunciation. In short, knowing character components will help you analyse, learn and remember each Chinese character much better.
Join us on Ninchanese as we teach you everything about the Chinese character components you need to know, little by little.