瓶 (píng) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

瓶

píng[ping2]Tone 2

bottle, vase, pitcher

HSK 2

Multiple Readings (多音字):

Guru Deep Dive

English · bottle, vase, pitcher

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:10

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (瓦) is compact and slightly narrower, while the right side (并) is wider and bears the main horizontal weight.

Simplification Logic: The character is identical in both Traditional and Simplified Chinese scripts.

1. Meaning

bottle, vase, pitcher

classifier for bottled or canned liquids and wine

Noun / ClassifierNeutral#containers#household objects#measure words

Sample Usage

桌子上有一瓶水。
zhuō zi shàng yǒu yì píng shuǐ.
There is a bottle of water on the table.
这花瓶真漂亮。
zhè huā píng zhēn piào liang.
This flower vase is really pretty.

2. Sound

/[pʰiŋ³⁵]/Tone: 35

瓶

píngping2

´(35)

=píng

Initial Consonant

Type: Aspirated Bilabial

Sounds like: p sound in English 'pat'

Aspirated

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

Tongue & Mouth Position: Both lips closed tightly together then released with a strong burst of air.

Final Rhyme

ing

Vowel Group: -i vowel group

Sounds like: -ing rhymes with 'sing'

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

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 a mid pitch and rises sharply to the top, exactly like asking 'Huh?' or 'What?' in English when you need clarification.

Sandhi: When followed by another Tone 2 syllable, it undergoes standard Tone 3-like adjustments if it were Tone 3, but being Tone 2 (rising 35), it simply rises from mid to high pitch.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the initial 'p-' with 'b-', or mishearing the rising Tone 2 for Tone 1 or Tone 4.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A rising hand gesture from chest level up to eye level, matching the inquisitive pitch of asking 'Really?'

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 10 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (瓦) is compact and slightly narrower, while the right side (并) is wider and bears the main horizontal weight.

Simplification Logic: The character is identical in both Traditional and Simplified Chinese scripts.

4. Components

Radical 瓦 · tile radical (earthenware, tile, pottery)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 瓦 (Indicates that the object is made of earthenware, ceramic, or pottery.)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 并 (original sound: bìng / píng)

An earthenware tile/potter's material (瓦) combined with the sound-giving element (并) creates a pottery container designed to hold liquids: a bottle or vase (瓶).

瓦 earthenware radical on the left
并 phonetic and structural component on the right

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

8· Phonetic Root: 并 (bìng)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally formed to describe ceramic or clay vessels used for storage. The left component (瓦) denotes fired clay ware, while the right component provides the phonetic reading.

Semantic Evolution: Over time, ceramic storage pots generalized into any vessel used for holding liquids, expanding from large jars to modern glass bottles and flower vases.

Ancient bottles were primarily made of pottery before the advent of widespread glassblowing.

6. Sinosphere

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: ビン (bin)

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

병

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

Imagine a potter molding a ceramic tile (瓦) side-by-side (并) on a spinning wheel to shape a tall, elegant glass BOTTLE (píng).

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

饼

bǐngcake, pastry, flatbreadUses the food/bread radical (饣) on the left instead of the tile radical (瓦).

屏

píngscreen, partitionUses the corpse/shelter radical (尸) on top/left.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

病(bìng)

病 uses the sickness radical (疺/疒), whereas 瓶 uses the tile/pottery radical (瓦).

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

桌子上有一[___]水。

Clue: píng

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the tone (Tone 2 píng vs Tone 4 bìng) or mixing up the left radical 瓦 with 疒 (sickness).

Memory Prompts

Recognition: What does the character 瓶 mean, and what is its Pinyin with tone?

Production: How do you write the Chinese character for 'bottle/vase' (píng)?

瓶píngbottle, vase, pitcher

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