播 (bō) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

播

bō[bo1]Tone 1

to sow, broadcast, spread

HSK 3

Guru Deep Dive

English · to sow, broadcast, spread

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:15

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (Hand radical 扌) is narrower and compressed, while the right side (番) is wider and dominates the remaining space, ensuring the character does not lean left.

1. Meaning

to sow (seeds), spread (ideas, rumors), or broadcast (radio/TV signals)

to propagateto transmit waves

VerbNeutralBound morpheme#agriculture#media#communication#action

Sample Usage

广播
guǎngbō
broadcast / radio program
直播
zhíbō
live broadcast / streaming

2. Sound

/[pɔ́]/Tone: 55

播

bōbo1

¯(55)

=bō

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: Lips pressed together lightly, then released without an outrush of breath.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -o vowel group

Sounds like: -o rhymes with aw in law

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

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 is a high, flat, sustained pitch, similar to holding a single musical note at the top of your vocal range without any rise or fall.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the un-aspirated 'b' with the strongly aspirated 'p'. Remember that 'b' in pinyin sounds closer to an English 'p' after 's' (like in 'spin'), whereas 'p' in pinyin is heavily aspirated like the 'p' in 'pin'.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A flat, high-pitched line drawn in the air at eye level, matching the steady cadence of a flat musical note.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 15 strokes

4. Components

Radical 扌 · Hand radical (hand, physical action)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 扌 (Indicates physical action done with hands (sowing, scattering).)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 番 (original sound: bō / fān)

A hand (扌) reaches into a pouch and scatters turns (番) of seeds across the field, broadcasting or sowing them far and wide.

扌 Hand radical indicating action
番 Phonetic and semantic background providing the sound 'bō' and the idea of repeating/spreading

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Combined from the hand radical (扌) showing manual scattering action, and 番 (fān) which phonetically hints at the sound and structurally conveys turning over or spreading out.

Semantic Evolution: Originally meant sowing seeds by hand in agriculture. Over time, it extended to spreading abstract things like news, ideas, and eventually electronic radio and television broadcasts.

The character bridges ancient agrarian traditions with modern telecommunications technology.

6. Sinosphere

🇻🇳

Sino-Vietnamese

bá / bá

Mandarin Tone 1 corresponds roughly to Vietnamese ngang (level) tone.

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: ハク

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

You use your hand (扌) to repeatedly turn (番) and scatter seeds across the plowed earth, broadcasting them across the field.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

番

fānturn, foreign, timesBase phonetic component without the hand radical.

翻

fānto turn over, translateUses the metal/gold or general left-side elements for turning pages over, whereas 播 uses hand for physical scattering.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

插(chā)

插 has the hand radical (扌) next to 臿 (to insert), meaning to insert or plug in, whereas 播 uses 番 for spreading outward.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

电视台正在现场[___]这场音乐会。

Clue: bō

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the 15-stroke complexity of 播 with simpler characters, or misremembering the right-side component 番 as another radical like 米.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see 播, what two core actions (one agricultural, one technological) does it represent?

Production: How do you write the character for 'to broadcast' or 'to sow' (bō)?

播bōto sow, broadcast, spread

Speed:

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