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

这块木板很结实。

Zhè kuài mùbǎn hěn jiēshi.

This wooden board is very sturdy.

老师用黑板写字。

Lǎoshī yòng hēibǎn xiězì.

The teacher writes on the blackboard.

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.