把 (bà) · handle

Meanings

1 handle
2 grip; hilt

Characters

把

bà

handle

Examples

HSK 5

刀把断了。

Dāobà duàn le.

The knife handle broke.

HSK 6

他握住锅把，把锅端了起来。

Tā wòzhù guō bà, bǎ guō duān le qǐlái.

He gripped the pot handle and lifted the pot up.

HSK 7-9

这把儿太短了，握不稳。

Zhè bàr tài duǎn le, wò bù wěn.

This handle is too short - you can't grip it firmly.

Tips

usage

The bà reading is the concrete-noun cousin of bǎ. It names the physical handle of a tool or vessel and appears almost always as the second syllable in compounds: 刀把 (knife hilt), 锅把 (pot handle), 枪把儿 (gun butt). The erhua form 把儿 is standalone-friendly in spoken Beijing speech.

mistakes

Don't confuse bà with the much more common bǎ. Same character, two readings: bǎ runs the grammar (verb "grasp", classifier, object-marker preposition) while bà names the physical handle of a tool or vessel. A handful of handle-words still take bǎ by convention - 把柄 (leverage on someone) and 把手 (door knob, grip) - so trust the entry's pinyin over the rule of thumb.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical form of 手)

Left hand radical (side-form of 手) - anchors 把 as a hand action. Original sense: to grasp, to take hold of. From the grip came the noun handle and the classifier for tools you grasp (一把刀 a knife). Family: 打 (hit), 拉 (pull), 抓 (grab), 推 (push).

phonetic

巴 bā

snake; cling

Right 巴 supplies the sound (bā → bǎ, just a tone shift). 巴 originally pictured a coiled snake; its grip-and-cling imagery faintly reinforces the grasping meaning of 把. Same phonetic in 爸 (dad), 吧 (particle), 疤 (scar).