HSK 5 · Verbs

拍 pāi “to pat” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 拍 means

  1. to pat
  2. to clap
  3. to slap
  4. to swat
  5. to take (a photo)
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to shoot (a film)

How to say 拍

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale拍pāi1st tone, high and level

拍 in a sentence

  1. 他拍了拍我的肩膀。

    Tā pāi le pāi wǒ de jiānbǎng.

    He patted me on the shoulder.

    Sentence #2299517 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 她把头发拍整齐了。

    Tā bǎ tóufa pāi zhěngqí le.

    She patted her hair into place.

    Sentence #1020033 from Tatoeba

  3. 拍 can also mean “to take (a photo)”

    用你的手机拍一张照片。

    Yòng nǐ de shǒujī pāi yì zhāng zhàopiàn.

    Take a picture with your phone.

    Sentence #7704608 from Tatoeba

How 拍 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 拍 (pāi) with each of its parts in a different colour
拍pāito pat
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒuMeaning part
  • 白white · báiSound part

扌 hints at the meaning (hand); 白 (bái) hints at the sound. Compare it with pāi.

How to write 拍

拍 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 拍

Words with 拍

拍照pāizhào · to take a photo

More words: Common Verbs

面临miànlín · to face摸mō · to feel with the hand模仿mófǎng · to imitate念niàn · to read aloud派pài · to send培养péiyǎng · to cultivate配合pèihé · to cooperate批pī · measure word for batches or groups

FAQs

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