HSK 6 · Education

撇 piě “left-falling stroke (丿)” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 撇 means

  1. left-falling stroke
  2. to throw
  3. to fling
  4. to cast
  5. left-slanting downward brush stroke (calligraphy)

How to say 撇

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale撇piě3rd tone, dipping

撇 in a sentence

  1. “人”字的第一笔是撇。

    “Rén” zì de dìyī bǐ shì piě.

    The first stroke of 人 is a left-falling stroke.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 她不高兴地撇了撇嘴。

    Tā bù gāoxìng de piě le piě zuǐ.

    She curled her lip in displeasure.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 撇 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 撇 (piě) with each of its parts in a different colour
撇piěto throw
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒuMeaning part
  • 敝to break · bìSound part

扌 hints at the meaning (hand); 敝 (bì) hints at the sound. Compare it with piě.

How to write 撇

撇 14 strokes

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

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

Words related to 撇

More words: Education & Learning

科目kēmù · (school) subject课题kètí · research topic旷课kuàngkè · to skip class母语mǔyǔ · mother tongue启蒙qǐméng · to enlighten示范shìfàn · to demonstrate师范shīfàn · teacher training文凭wénpíng · diploma

FAQs

撇 (piě) means “left-falling stroke” or “to throw”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it piě: piě with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 撇 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type pie with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 撇 from the suggestions. Typing pie into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
撇 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.