划 (huà): to plan; to map out

Meanings

1 to plan; to map out
2 to delimit; to demarcate; to assign
3 to draw (a line); to mark
4 to transfer (funds, jurisdiction)
5 stroke of a Chinese character

Characters

Left 戈 (dagger-axe) + right 刂 (knife) - two cutting tools side by side, picturing a blade scoring a line: the act of marking out, demarcating, planning.

Examples

HSK 3

老师在黑板上划了一条线。

Lǎoshī zài hēibǎn shàng huà le yī tiáo xiàn.

The teacher drew a line on the blackboard.

HSK 4

你对未来有什么计划？

Nǐ duì wèilái yǒu shénme jìhuà?

What are your plans for the future?

HSK 7-9

省被划分为五个行政区。

Shěng bèi huàfēn wéi wǔ gè xíngzhèngqū.

The province was divided into five administrative districts.

Tips

usage

Use huà for any 'plan / delimit / draw-a-line' sense: 计划 (plan), 规划 (to map out), 策划 (to plan / scheme), 划分 (to divide), 划定 (to delimit), 划时代 (epoch-making), 下划线 (underscore). For rowing, scratching, striking matches, and 'worthwhile', switch to the huá reading.

mistakes

Don't confuse huà with 画 (to draw / a painting). Both sound identical and both involve marks on paper, but 画 is for pictures and 划 is for marking out lines, boundaries, or plans. 'A painting' is 画; 'a plan' is 划.

Components

radical

刂 dāo

knife

Knife radical on the right - the standing form of 刀 with two strokes. The indexing radical, contributing the cutting / dividing meaning. Same radical heads 利 (sharp), 刚 (just), 刻 (carve), 别 (separate). Here knife + dagger-axe yields 'to mark or divide with a blade'.

semantic

戈 gē

dagger-axe

戈 on the left - pictures a hooked dagger-axe. Together with the knife on the right, it puts 划 in the family of cutting/marking tools: scratching a line, drawing a stroke, demarcating a plan. From that came both the stroke-of-a-paddle sense (划船 to row) and the planning sense (计划, 划分).