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particle HSK 3 #40

Meanings

  1. 1 to hold; to grasp
  2. 2 object-marker preposition
  3. 3 classifier for handfuls, bundles, or things with handles

Examples

Bǎ mén guānshàng.
Close the door.
Qǐng bǎ shū fàng zài zhuōzi shàng.
Please put the book on the table.
作业做完
Tā bǎ zuòyè zuòwán le.
He finished his homework.
Gěi wǒ yī bǎ yǐzi.
Give me a chair.

Tips

grammar
The construction (把字句) moves the object before the verb to emphasise what happens TO it: Subject + + object + verb + result. The verb must carry a complement, aspect, or other result element — never bare. Right: 看完 (I finished reading the book). Wrong: . Only use this with verbs that affect or change the object — not with , , , 知道, or other stative verbs.
usage
As a classifier, covers two patterns: things with a handle you can grip ( a knife, an umbrella, 椅子 a chair) and handfuls or bundles ( a handful of rice, a bunch of flowers).
memory
All three senses trace back to the hand-radical : grasping (verb), the bundle your hand grasps (classifier), and the preposition that drags the object into your grasp before the verb acts. One image — a hand reaching to take hold — explains the whole entry.

Components

radical
shǒu
hand (radical form of 手)
Left hand radical (side-form of ) — anchors as a hand action. Original sense: to grasp, to take hold of. From the grip came the noun handle and the classifier for tools you grasp ( a knife). Family: (hit), (pull), (grab), (push).
phonetic
snake; cling
Right supplies the sound (bā → bǎ, just a tone shift). originally pictured a coiled snake; its grip-and-cling imagery faintly reinforces the grasping meaning of . Same phonetic in (dad), (particle), (scar).

Stroke Order