HSK 6 · Verbs

拨 bō “to dial” in Chinese

Traditional 撥

What 拨 means

  1. to dial
  2. to allocate (funds)
  3. to move with a finger
  4. to push aside with the hand, foot, a stick etc
  5. to allocate
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to set aside (money)
  • to poke (the fire)
  • to pluck (a string instrument)

How to say 拨

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale拨bō1st tone, high and level

拨 in a sentence

  1. 你确定你拨对号码了吗？

    Nǐ quèdìng nǐ bō duì hàomǎ le ma?

    Are you sure you dialled the right number?

    Sentence #13363502 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 对不起，我拨错了号码。

    Duìbuqǐ, wǒ bō cuò le hàomǎ.

    I’m sorry, I dialled the wrong number.

    Sentence #798410 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  3. 他没带钥匙，用铁丝拨动了两下，门居然开了。

    Tā méi dài yàoshi, yòng tiěsī bōdòng le liǎngxià, mén jūrán kāi le.

    He’d forgotten his key, but after he jiggled a piece of wire in the lock a couple of times, the door actually opened.

    Sentence #934185 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 拨 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 拨 (bō) with each of its parts in a different colour
拨bōto push aside with the hand, foot
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒu
  • 发to issue · fā

How to write 拨

拨 8 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

拨 (bō) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 拨 (bō). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 拨

Words with 拨

挑拨tiǎobō · to stir up trouble

More words: Common Verbs

憋biē · to hold in (breath并列bìngliè · to stand side by side濒临bīnlín · to be on the verge of逼迫bīpò · to force搏斗bódòu · to fight补救bǔjiù · to remedy部署bùshǔ · to deploy布置bùzhì · to arrange

FAQs

拨 (bō) means “to dial” or “to allocate (funds)”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it bō: bō with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 拨 is written 撥. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type bo with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 拨 from the suggestions. Typing bo into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
拨 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.