p8nda
p8nda BETA
Home Dictionary Translate Flashcards Sign in

扫

掃
sǎo / sào
verb HSK 4 #4,782

Meanings

  1. 1 to sweep (with a broom or brush)
  2. 2 to sweep away; to wipe out; to get rid of
  3. 3 to sweep over; to scan (eyes, a beam, a code)

Examples

请把地扫一下。
Qǐng bǎ dì sǎo yīxià.
Please sweep the floor.
扫一下二维码。
Sǎo yīxià èrwéimǎ.
Scan the QR code.
她每天早上扫院子。
Tā měitiān zǎoshang sǎo yuànzi.
She sweeps the yard every morning.

Tips

usage
Three live senses to know: (1) physical sweep — 扫地, 打扫, 大扫除; (2) figurative wipe-out — 扫黄 (crack down on porn), 扫毒 (anti-drug ops), 一扫而光; (3) modern scan — 扫码 (scan a QR code), 扫脸 (facial-recognition scan), 扫描 (scan / scanner). 扫码 is essential daily vocabulary in mainland China — you'll see and hear it everywhere from restaurant menus to street vendors.
mistakes
扫 has a second reading 扫 for the noun "broom" itself: 扫帚 and 扫把. All verb senses (to sweep, to scan, to wipe out, to crack down on) stay sǎo. Note that 扫兴 (disappointing) keeps the third tone — it's the verbal "sweep away one's mood," not the broom noun.

Components

radical
扌 shǒu
hand (radical)
Left hand radical — the side-stacking variant of 手. Sweeping is a hand-and-arm action, dragging a broom across the floor. The radical also covers the modern figurative sense 'to scan' (扫码 scan a QR code) — a hand passing over a surface. Family: 抹 (wipe), 拭 (wipe), 拂 (brush).
semantic
彐 jì
pig snout; (here) hand grip
Right 彐 — in this position a stylised hand gripping the broom-handle (simplified from traditional 掃, where the right side was the heavier 帚 'broom'). The 1956 reform cut 帚 down to just this 3-stroke top. Read it as the gripping hand atop the broom rather than the literal 'pig snout' Kangxi reading of 彐.

Stroke Order

扫 sǎo