Where 半 comes from
A cow 牛 splitting 丷 wood in half
How to write 半 (bàn, “half”)
半 (bàn), an HSK 1 character, means “half”, “semi-” and “incomplete”. It is a character whose parts combine into its meaning. Dictionaries list it under the radical 十 (“ten”). On its own it is an HSK 1 word; it also forms 一半 (“half”), 半天 (“half of the day”) and 半夜 (“midnight”). Japanese reads it han, “half”, as a JLPT N5 kanji.
- Pinyin
- bàn
- Strokes
- 5
- HSK
- 1
- Radical
- 十 (“ten”)
Stroke by stroke
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
As an overlapping character it splits into 丷 (“"eight" component in Chinese characters”), strokes 1–2; 牛 (“cow”), strokes 3–5, written the first part first.
- Dot ㇔top leftdown and right
- Left-falling stroke ㇒top rightdown and right → down and left
- Horizontal ㇐leftrightwards
- Horizontal ㇐leftrightwards
- Vertical ㇑topdownwards
Japanese and Chinese
Japanese and Chinese draw all 5 strokes in the same order and direction, by our stroke-by-stroke comparison.
Trace it
Follow the numbers. Tracing help
Pinyin and meaning
| Pinyin | Meanings | Traditional | In words |
|---|---|---|---|
| bàn fourth tone | half; semi-; incomplete; (after a number) and a half | — | 一半 半天 半夜 多半 |
- HSK 2025 syllabus
- level 1
- 2021 standard
- level 1
- HSK 2.0
- in a level 3 word
- Words with it
- 209 in CC-CEDICT
Words with 半
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 半 | bàn | half; semi- HSK 1 |
| 一半 | yíbàn | half HSK 1 |
| 半天 | bàntiān | half of the day; a long time HSK 3 |
| 半夜 | bànyè | midnight; in the middle of the night HSK 5 |
| 多半 | duōbàn | most; mostly HSK 7-9 |
| 半边天 半邊天 | bànbiāntiān | half the sky; women of the new society HSK 7-9 |
| 过半 過半 | guòbàn | over fifty percent; more than half HSK 7-9 |
| 上半场 上半場 | shàngbànchǎng | first half of a game or contest HSK 7-9 |
| 下半场 下半場 | xiàbànchǎng | second half of a game or contest HSK 7-9 |
| 半数 半數 | bànshù | half the number; half HSK 7-9 |
HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).
Practice sheet
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HSK 1, in list order: