拆 (chāi) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

拆

chāi[chai1]Tone 1

to tear open

HSK 5

Guru Deep Dive

English · to tear open

Cached lesson

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:8

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (Hand radical) should be compact and narrower than the right side (Pronunciation component), allowing both halves to balance harmoniously within an imaginary square.

1. Meaning

to tear open

to tear downto demolishto dismantleto open (a letter or package)

VerbNeutral#actions#destruction#construction#communication

Sample Usage

请帮我拆开这封信。
qǐng bāng wǒ chāi kāi zhè fēng xìn.
Please help me tear open this letter.
那栋老建筑上个月被拆了。
nà dòng lǎo jiànzhù shàng gè yuè bèi chāi le.
That old building was demolished last month.

2. Sound

/[t͡ʂʰaɪ̯⁵⁵]/Tone: 55

拆

chāichai1

¯(55)

=chāi

Initial Consonant

Type: Aspirated Retroflex

Sounds like: ch (retroflex hushing sound, like 'ch' in church with tongue curled back)

AspiratedRetroflex

Airflow Tactile Test: Both curled tongue AND explosive puff of air! Tissue MUST fly.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Tip of the tongue is curled back toward the hard palate, then released with a forceful burst of breath.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -a vowel group

Sounds like: -ai rhymes with 'eye' or the 'i' in 'high'

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

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

Tone

T1 (55)

5 → 5 (55)

1st Tone (High-Flat)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 1 stays flat and high at the top of your vocal range, matching a musical pitch held steady.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing it with chāi in the 2nd tone (chái) or mistaking the retroflex initial 'ch' for the alveolar 'c'.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Keep your voice on a high, flat, level pitch as if singing a high musical note without any rise or fall.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 8 strokes

4. Components

Radical 扌 · Hand radical (hands, manual actions)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 扌 (indicates an action performed with the hands (tearing, opening))

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 斥 (original sound: chì / chāi phonetic core providing the pronunciation backbone)

A hand (扌) reaches out to push away, expel, or break apart (斥) an object, meaning to tear open or dismantle.

扌 Hand radical indicating physical action
斥 Phonetic clue indicating sound and the idea of driving apart/repelling

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

3· Phonetic Root: 斥 (chì)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Combined from the hand radical (扌) showing manual force and '斥' (chì) which originally depicted banishing or driving apart, later adopted for its sound and sense of splitting or tearing open.

Semantic Evolution: Originally meant to open or separate objects by force. Over time, it extended to demolishing buildings (拆迁), opening mail (拆信), and taking apart devices (拆卸).

In modern Chinese cities, the character 拆 is famously painted in a large white circle on buildings slated for demolition.

6. Sinosphere

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: サク (saku)

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

You use your hand (扌) to angrily scold and dismiss (斥) someone, but physically you use your HAND to TEAR OPEN a stubborn package.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

斥

chìto reprimand, to banishWithout the hand radical, it means to scold or repulse.

诉

sùto complain, to tellUses the speech radical (讠) instead of hand (扌).

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

折(zhé)

折 uses the same right component 斥, but has the hand radical (扌) meaning to fold or snap, whereas 拆 specifically means to tear open or demolish.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

收到了快递以后，我马上就把包裹[___]开了。

Clue: chāi

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing 拆 (chāi - to tear open) with 折 (zhé - to fold or snap), since both share the same right-hand component 斥.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see 拆 in a sentence about a letter or a building, what two main actions does it convey?

Production: How do you write the character for 'to tear open' or 'to demolish' using a hand radical and the phonetic component 斥?

拆chāito tear open

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