啪 (pā): bang

Meanings

1 bang
2 pop
3 slap

Characters

啪

pā

bang; pop

Examples

HSK 3

她啪地一下拍了桌子。

Tā pā de yíxià pāi le zhuōzi.

She slapped the table with a bang.

HSK 5

啪的一声，门关上了。

Pā de yì shēng, mén guānshàng le.

With a bang, the door shut.

Tips

grammar

Onomatopoeia in Chinese often use the pattern: [sound]的一声 or [sound]地一下. For example: 啪的一声 (with a bang).

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

Left mouth radical - the indexing radical. As with most onomatopoeic chars (哗, 嗒, 嘭, 啦), 口 signals 'sound made by the mouth or imitated by speech.' Anchors 啪 in the noise/exclamation family.

phonetic

拍 pāi

clap; slap

Right 拍 supplies the sound pāi to pā with a faint shortening, while reinforcing meaning - 拍 means 'clap, slap,' the very action that produces the bang/pop noise 啪 imitates. The pairing reads as 'mouth-version of a slap sound,' linking the onomatope to the physical gesture behind it.