勃 (bó) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

勃

bó[bo2]Tone 2

flourishing

HSK 7

Guru Deep Dive

English · flourishing

Cached lesson

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:9

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (十 and 凵 components forming the left portion) and right side (孛) must be balanced evenly without crowding the central dividing line.

1. Meaning

flourishing, prosperous, sudden

abruptlysudden change in mood or state

Adjective / AdverbFormal / LiteraryBound morpheme#state#growth#manner

Sample Usage

生机勃勃
shēng jī bó bó
full of vitality, flourishing
勃然大怒
bó rán dà nù
suddenly fly into a great rage

2. Sound

/[pɔ³⁵]/Tone: 35

勃

bóbo2

´(35)

=bó

Build the syllable

Step-by-step blending

Tone mark placement: Tone mark sits on "o" per main-vowel priority (a > e > o; in -iu/-ui the mark takes the second vowel).

Initial Consonant

Type: Unaspirated Bilabial

Sounds like: b sound as in 'boy'

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: No burst of air. A tissue in front of lips should stay still.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Both lips pressed together lightly and released with a voiced plosive burst.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -o vowel group

Sounds like: -o rhymes with aw in 'paw'

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'aw'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T2 (35)

3 → 5 (35)

2nd Tone (Mid-Rising)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 2 starts at mid pitch (3) and rises up to high pitch (5), identical to a questioning upward inflection in English.

👂

Listening trap: Often confused with first tone or fourth tone if the rising contour is clipped too short.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Tone 2 starts mid and sweeps sharply upward like asking a surprised 'What?'.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 9 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (十 and 凵 components forming the left portion) and right side (孛) must be balanced evenly without crowding the central dividing line.

4. Components

Radical 力 · Power Radical (strength, force)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 力 (indicates force or sudden action)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 孛 (original sound: bó)

The character combines the phonetic element 孛 (bó) on the left/upper-left and the power radical 力 on the right, suggesting a sudden, forceful outburst of flourishing energy.

孛 provides the sound bó and suggests rising or sudden appearance
力 provides the meaning of strength or forceful action

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

2· Phonetic Root: 勃 (bó)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally combined elements representing plants sprouting or sudden forceful motions, evolving to signify things that grow rapidly or happen abruptly.

Semantic Evolution: Shifted from specific natural growing actions to general concepts of flourishing vitality and sudden emotional outbursts.

Frequently used in classic Chinese literature to describe sudden weather changes or explosive emotional reactions.

6. Sinosphere

🇻🇳

Sino-Vietnamese

bột

Mandarin rising tone mapped to Vietnamese checked tone.

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: ハツ

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

발

Sound Shift Bridge: Shared East Asian literary root vocabulary.

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

With great POWER (力), a prosperous plant bursts forth suddenly from the soil, growing in a FLOURISHING (勃) manner.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

渤

bósame as 渤海[Bo2 Hai3], Bohai Sea between Liaoning and Shandong; Gulf of Zhili or Chihli+ 氵 (water)

Explore this family →

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

脖(bó)

Has the flesh/body radical (月) on the left because it means 'neck', whereas 勃 has the power radical (力).

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

春天来了，大地上一派[___]向荣的景象。

Clue: bó

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing 勃 with 脖 due to identical pronunciation, forgetting that 勃 relates to sudden energy or flourishing while 脖 refers to the neck.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: What does 勃 mean when seen in compound words like 勃然大怒 or 生机勃勃?

Production: How do you write the character for 'flourishing/sudden' (bó) using its phonetic and power parts?

勃bóflourishing

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