插 (chā): to insert; to stick in

Meanings

1 to insert; to stick in
2 to interpose; to cut in (a conversation)

Characters

插

chā

to insert; to stick in

扌(hand) + right component — inserting something with the hand

Examples

把钥匙插进锁里。

Bǎ yàoshi chājìn suǒ lǐ.

Insert the key into the lock.

花瓶里插着几朵花。

Huāpíng lǐ chā zhe jǐ duǒ huā.

A few flowers are arranged in the vase.

别插嘴，让他说完。

Bié chāzuǐ, ràng tā shuō wán.

Don't interrupt, let him finish.

把充电器插上。

Bǎ chōngdiànqì chā shàng.

Plug in the charger.

Tips

usage

插嘴 (chāzuǐ) = to interrupt/cut into a conversation (literally 'insert mouth'). 插队 (chāduì) = to cut in line — very frowned upon!

memory

The hand radical 扌 on the left shows it's an action done with the hand — sticking something in.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical form of 手)

Hand radical on the left marks 插 as a hands-on action — pushing, sticking, plugging in. It indexes 插 alongside 拔 to pull out, 推 to push, 抓 to grasp. Without the hand, the right side is just a graph of pestle-in-mortar; with the hand, it becomes the act of inserting one thing into another.

phonetic

臿 chā

pestle into mortar

Right is 臿, supplying the sound exactly: chā matches chā. It pictures a pestle being driven down into a mortar — the very image of inserting something forcefully. The semantic match is so close that 插 nearly reads as 'hand-driven pestle into mortar' = to insert. Same phonetic in 锸 (a kind of spade) and 鍤 (variant).