排 (pái) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

排

pái[pai2]Tone 2

a row, to arrange, platoon

HSK 2

Guru Deep Dive

English · a row, to arrange, platoon

Cached lesson

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:11

Writing Balance Rule: The left radical (hand component 扌) should be compact and narrower, while the right component (非) occupies more horizontal space with parallel horizontal strokes spaced evenly.

1. Meaning

to arrange, line up, put in order

a row or linemilitary platoonto drain or eliminate (e.g. exhaust)classifier for lines or rows

Verb / NounNeutral#organization#military#action

Sample Usage

请大家排好队。
Qǐng dàjiā pái hǎo duì.
Please everyone line up in good order.
排长
páizhǎng
platoon leader

2. Sound

/[pʰaɪ̯³⁵]/Tone: 35

排

páipai2

´(35)

=pái

Initial Consonant

Type: Aspirated Bilabial

Sounds like: p sound as in 'pat'

Aspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Strong puff of air! A tissue held before lips MUST fly forward.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Lips pressed together firmly and released with a noticeable puff of air.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -a vowel group

Sounds like: ai rhymes with 'eye'

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

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 mid and rises sharply to the top, exactly like the inflection used when saying 'Huh?' or asking 'Really?' in disbelief.

Sandhi: When followed by another Tone 2, the tone shifts to a high rising contour similar to Tone 1, though standard citation form remains 35.

👂

Listening trap: Do not confuse with the first tone (pāi) or fourth tone (pài); ensure the voice clearly sweeps upward from low to high.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A rising hand gesture moving upward from chest level to head height, matching the upward inflection of asking a surprised question in English like 'What?'

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 11 strokes

4. Components

Radical 扌 · Hand radical (hand, manual action)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 扌 (indicates an action performed with the hands (arranging, pushing))

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 非 (original sound: fēi / pái phonetic family providing the sound clue)

You use your HAND (扌) to set things like books or fence posts in a non-random, organized non-chaotic way (非).

扌 Hand component indicating physical arrangement
非 Phonetic and structural component meaning 'not' or opposing sides

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

26· Phonetic Root: 非 (fēi)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally combined the hand radical (扌) indicating physical manipulation with 非, which provided the phonetic reading and a sense of spreading out or aligning opposite sides.

Semantic Evolution: From physically lining up objects with the hand, it broadened to abstract arrangements, lines of people, military platoons, and drainage systems.

In military contexts, soldiers standing in aligned rows led to '排' being used for a platoon.

6. Sinosphere

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: ハイ (hai) / Kun: (nara.beru)

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

With your own HAND (扌), you carefully arrange rows of files so that NOTHING (非) is out of place.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

排

páito arrangeStandard character with hand radical

罪

zuìguilt, crimeUses net/eye top instead of hand radical

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

罪(zuì)

罪 has a net/eye structure on top (网/罒), whereas 排 features the hand radical (扌) on the left.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

请大家[___]好队，准备出发。

Clue: pái

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the hand radical 扌 with the water radical 氵, which would turn it into a completely different character or non-existent glyph.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see 排, what is its primary meaning and initial consonant aspiration?

Production: How do you write the character for 'to arrange / row' (pái) and what radical does it use?

排páia row, to arrange, platoon

Speed:

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