HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Hobbies, Sport

拍照 pāizhào “to take a photo” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 拍照 means

  1. to take a photo
  2. to take a picture

How to say 拍照

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale拍pāi1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale照zhào4th tone, falling

拍照 in a sentence

  1. 我喜欢拍照。

    Wǒ xǐhuan pāizhào.

    I enjoy taking photos.

    Sentence #334388 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我能在这里拍照吗？

    Wǒ néng zài zhèlǐ pāizhào ma?

    Can I take photos here?

    Sentence #334387 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我们去公园拍照了。

    Wǒmen qù gōngyuán pāizhào le.

    We went to the park to take photos.

    Sentence #334382 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 拍照 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.

The character 照 (zhào) with each of its parts in a different colour
照zhàoto shine
  • 昭bright · zhāoSound part
  • 灬fire form of 火 · huǒMeaning part

灬 hints at the meaning (fire); 昭 (zhāo) hints at the sound. Compare it with zhào.

Memory aidFire 灬 under 昭 (zhāo) “bright”: to shine, to light up, and also a photo.

How to write 拍照

拍 8 strokes · 照 13 strokes

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

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

Words related to 拍照

Words with 拍

拍pāi · to pat

Words with 照

照顾zhàogu · take care of护照hùzhào · passport照片zhàopiàn · picture照相zhàoxiàng · to take a photo照相机zhàoxiàngjī · camera照zhào · to shine按照ànzhào · according to执照zhízhào · licence照常zhàocháng · as usual参照cānzhào · to refer to

More words: Hobbies, Sport & Leisure

兴趣xìngqù · interest运动员yùndòngyuán · athlete晚会wǎnhuì · evening party得分défēn · to score (points)球场qiúchǎng · (sports) court过节guòjié · to celebrate a festival照相zhàoxiàng · to take a photo请客qǐngkè · to treat someone (to a meal)

FAQs

拍照 (pāizhào) means “to take a photo” or “to take a picture”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it pāizhào: pāi with a 1st tone, then zhào with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 拍照 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type paizhao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 拍照 from the suggestions. Typing paizhao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
拍照 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 5 word list. It is not on the older 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.