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弹

彈
tán / dàn
verb HSK 5 #1,388

Meanings

  1. 1 to pluck; to play (a stringed instrument)
  2. 2 to spring; to bounce; to leap
  3. 3 to shoot (with a catapult); to flick; to flip
  4. 4 to fluff or tease (cotton)
  5. 5 to accuse; to impeach
  6. 6 elastic (of materials)

Examples

HSK 2
球从墙上弹了回来。
Qiú cóng qiángshàng tán le huílái.
The ball bounced back from the wall.
HSK 5
她很会弹钢琴。
Tā hěn huì tán gāngqín.
She is very good at playing the piano.
HSK 7-9
国会投票弹劾总统。
Guóhuì tóupiào tánhé zǒngtǒng.
Parliament voted to impeach the president.

Tips

usage
tán covers anything that snaps, springs or vibrates back: 弹钢琴 (play piano - fingers flicking keys), 弹簧 (a metal spring), 反弹 (bounce back / market rebound), 弹性 (elasticity). The formal sense 'to impeach' in 弹劾 also takes tán - historically 'to flick / level an accusation at' an official.
mistakes
Two compounds catch learners out: 动弹 'to budge' takes a toneless tan (neutral tone in CEDICT), not dàn - there's no projectile involved. And 弹涂鱼 'mudskipper' is tán because the fish flicks itself across mud, not because it's bullet-shaped.

Components

radical
弓 gōng
bow
Left bow radical - same indexing semantic as the dàn reading. For tán the bow codes the ACTION: drawing and releasing a string, the snap of cotton-bow fluffing, the flick that launches a pellet. Same family: 张 (draw a bow), 弦 (bowstring), 弧 (arc).
phonetic
单 dān
single (here phonetic)
Right 单 supplies the sound - for the tán reading the phonetic has drifted further (dān → tán, both initial and tone shift). Simplified from traditional 彈 whose 單 phonetic shows the same drift in 蝉 (cicada) - same series, tone and initial both moved.

Stroke Order

弹 tán