p8nda
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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

她很会弹钢琴。
Tā hěn huì tán gāngqín.
She is very good at playing the piano.
球从墙上弹了回来。
Qiú cóng qiángshàng tán le huílái.
The ball bounced back from the wall.
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