菠 (bō) · spinach, leafy green vegetable

Meanings

1 spinach
2 leafy green vegetable

Characters

菠

bō

spinach (bound form)

Examples

HSK 4

她在汤里加了点菠菜。

Tā zài tāng lǐ jiā le diǎn bōcài.

She added some spinach to the soup.

HSK 7-9

菠菜含铁丰富。

Bōcài hán tiě fēngfù.

Spinach is rich in iron.

Tips

usage

菠 rarely stands alone; it almost always appears in compounds like 菠菜 (spinach) or 菠萝 (pineapple). Learn the compounds, not the bare character.

memory

菠 = grass radical 艹 over 波 (bō, wave). Picture spinach leaves rippling like waves - and 波 also gives you the sound.

Components

radical

艹 cǎo

grass; plant (top radical)

Top grass radical (3-stroke compressed form of 艸) - the indexing radical, putting 菠 in the botanical family with 花 flower, 草 grass, 茶 tea, 苹 apple. All edible leafy greens hang under this canopy. 菠菜 spinach, 菠萝 pineapple.

phonetic

波 bō

wave (here phonetic)

Bottom 波 supplies the sound - bō carried over without change. 波 itself means "wave" (氵 water + 皮 skin), and that "ripple" image fits transliterations like 菠萝 (pineapple, originally a phonetic loan from Sanskrit "ananas") where 菠 functions almost purely phonetically rather than for botanical content.