How to write 本 (běn, “root”)

本 (běn), an HSK 1 character, means “root”, “origin” and “one's own”. It is also a measure word: CC-CEDICT pairs it with 35 nouns, 名册, 图书 and 图集 among them. As an overlapping character it splits into 木 (“tree”, the radical), strokes 1–4; 一 (“one”), stroke 5, written the first part first. On its own it is an HSK 1 word; it also forms 本子 (“book”), 课本 (“textbook”) and 笔记本 (“notebook”). Japanese reads it hon, “book”, as a JLPT N5 kanji.

Pinyin: běn
Strokes: 5
HSK: 1
Radical: 木 (“tree”)

Stroke by stroke

Horizontal ㇐top leftrightwards
Vertical ㇑topdownwards
Left-falling stroke ㇒topdown and left
Right-falling stroke ㇏topdown and right → rightwards
Horizontal ㇐bottom leftrightwards

Names of the strokes

Japanese and Chinese

Japanese and Chinese draw all 5 strokes in the same order and direction, by our stroke-by-stroke comparison.

Japanese · KanjiVG · 5 strokes

Chinese · Make Me a Hanzi · 5 strokes

本 as a measure word

名册 — roll
图书 — books
图集 — collection of pictures
地图 — map
字典 — Chinese character dictionary
小人书 — children's picture story book

Trace it

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Pinyin and meaning

Pinyin	Meanings	Traditional	In words
běn third tone	(bound form) root; stem; (bound form) origin; source; (bound form) one's own; this; (bound form) this; the current (year etc); (bound form) original	—	本子课本笔记本本来

HSK 2025 syllabus: level 1
2021 standard: level 1
HSK 2.0: in a level 1 word
Words with it: 282 in CC-CEDICT

Words with 本

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
本	běn	root; stem HSK 1
本子	běnzi	book; notebook HSK 2
课本課本	kèběn	textbook HSK 3
笔记本筆記本	bǐjìběn	notebook (stationery); (computing) laptop HSK 3
本来本來	běnlái	original; originally HSK 4
基本	jīběn	basic; fundamental HSK 4
本科	běnkē	undergraduate course; undergraduate (attributive) HSK 4
基本上	jīběnshàng	basically; on the whole HSK 4
本人	běnrén	I; me HSK 5
本地	běndì	local; this locality HSK 5

HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).

Practice sheet

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Keep going

Contain it:

HSK 1, in list order: