板 (bǎn): board; plank

Measure Word

一块板 kuài

Meanings

1 board; plank
2 plate; panel
3 stiff; rigid
4 accented beat (in Chinese music); clappers

Characters

板

bǎn

board; plank; stiff

Wood radical 木 on the left fixes the lumber meaning; 反 on the right supplies the sound with a regular f-/b- drift.

Examples

HSK 2

老师用黑板写字。

Lǎoshī yòng hēibǎn xiězì.

The teacher writes on the blackboard.

HSK 3

这块木板很结实。

Zhè kuài mùbǎn hěn jiēshi.

This wooden board is very sturdy.

HSK 4

他的表情很板。

Tā de biǎoqíng hěn bǎn.

His expression is very stiff.

Tips

usage

板 is one of the most productive noun-forming chars: 黑板 (blackboard), 地板 (floor), 老板 (boss), 天花板 (ceiling), 平板 (tablet). Default sense is a flat rigid sheet; the wood semantic stays exact even when the referent is metal or plastic.

history

The boss sense in 老板 originally wrote 闆 - a separate traditional character showing a face peering between shop shutters. Simplification merged 闆 into 板, so the modern simplified char carries both the plank meanings and the proprietor meaning under one reading.

Components

radical

木 mù

wood; tree

Tree radical on the left, and 板's indexing radical. Anchors the char in the lumber family: a 板 is by default a sawn plank, and the wood semantic stays exact even when the modern referent is plastic, metal, or a tablet (平板). Same family as 林, 树, 柜, 桌.

phonetic

反 fǎn

reverse; flip

Right side 反 supplies the sound: fǎn to bǎn with a regular labial drift (f-/b-) seen across this phonetic series. The same 反 phonetic appears in 饭, 返, 贩, 版 - recognise the cluster and the reading falls into place.