HSK 5 · Media

播放 bōfàng “to broadcast” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 播放 means

  1. to broadcast
  2. to play (a recording)
  3. to transmit (by radio or TV)

How to say 播放

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale播bō1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale放fàng4th tone, falling

播放 in a sentence

  1. 电视台现在正在播放足球赛。

    Diànshìtái xiànzài zhèngzài bōfàng zúqiúsài.

    The TV station is showing a football match right now.

    Sentence #3559283 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 播放 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 播 (bō) with each of its parts in a different colour
播bōto sow; to spread; to broadcast
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒu
  • 番to take turns · fān
The character 放 (fàng) with each of its parts in a different colour
放fàngto put
  • 方square · fāngSound part
  • 攵tap form of 攴 · pūMeaning part

攵 hints at the meaning (tap); 方 (fāng) hints at the sound. Compare it with fàng.

How to write 播放

播 15 strokes · 放 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 播放

Words with 播

广播guǎngbō · broadcast传播chuánbō · to disseminate直播zhíbō · live broadcast播种bōzhǒng · to sow seeds

Words with 放

放fàng · put放心fàngxīn · relax放假fàngjià · to have a holiday放学fàngxué · to finish school (for the day)放松fàngsōng · to relax放弃fàngqì · to renounce放暑假fàngshǔjià · to be on summer holidays开放kāifàng · to open (to the public)放大fàngdà · to enlarge解放jiěfàng · to liberate

More words: Media & Arts

报社bàoshè · newspaper office博物馆bówùguǎn · museum采访cǎifǎng · to interview出版chūbǎn · to publish传说chuánshuō · legend直播zhíbō · live broadcast传记zhuànjì · biography著作zhùzuò · written work

FAQs

播放 (bōfàng) means “to broadcast” or “to play (a recording)”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it bōfàng: bō with a 1st tone, then fàng with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 播放 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type bofang with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 播放 from the suggestions. Typing bofang into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
播放 is an HSK 5 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.