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台

臺
tái
noun HSK 3 #866

Meanings

  1. 1 platform; stage; terrace
  2. 2 stand; support; pedestal
  3. 3 station (broadcasting, observation)
  4. 4 desk; counter; tabletop
  5. 5 measure word for machines, vehicles, and performances

Examples

我买了一台电脑。
Wǒ mǎi le yī tái diànnǎo.
I bought a computer.
演员走上了舞台。
Yǎnyuán zǒu shàng le wǔtái.
The actor walked onto the stage.
家里有两台空调。
Jiā lǐ yǒu liǎng tái kōngtiáo.
There are two air conditioners at home.

Tips

grammar
As a measure word, 台 counts heavy machines and devices that sit on a surface: 一台电脑 (a computer), 一台电视 (a TV), 一台空调 (an AC unit). Also used for staged performances (一台戏 — one show).
history
Simplified 台 merges three originally distinct traditional characters: 臺 (platform/stage/terrace — the primary sense), 檯 (desk, counter — as in 柜台/写字台), and 颱 (typhoon — as in 台风). Mainland reforms collapsed all three onto the small old graph 台, which historically meant something else entirely (an archaic word for 'I').
register
Two reading shifts to watch for. (1) As a place-name abbreviation for 台湾 (Taiwan), the syllable is capitalised Tái — same tone, proper-noun convention: 台北, 台商, 港澳台. (2) In a small set of Zhejiang place names, 台 is read tāi (first tone): 天台山 (the mountain), 台州 (the prefecture). Dictionaries still list 天台宗 (the Buddhist school) with second tone tái, but you'll hear locals say tāi for anything geographic in that region.

Components

radical
口 kǒu
mouth
Bottom 口 — also 台's indexing radical. Provides the sound base in the original old-Chinese reading (yí, preserved in archaic 台 = 'I'). Modern simplified 台 now carries platform, station, Taiwan, and typhoon senses merged into one graph — the mouth is the surviving anchor that links them visually.
semantic
厶 sī
private; self (graphic)
Top 厶 — a small coiled shape, originally the early form of 私 'private, self' (an arm curling to keep something for oneself). In 台 it caps the mouth below; the pair was historically a phonetic graph, since simplified 台 absorbed the older 臺 'platform' and 颱 'typhoon' under the same shape — a borrowed phonetic relation, not a literal picture.

Stroke Order

台 tái