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拦

攔
lán
verb HSK 6 #5,056

Meanings

  1. 1 to block; to bar the way
  2. 2 to stop; to intercept

Examples

HSK 1
谁也拦不住他。
Shéi yě lán bùzhù tā.
Nobody can stop him.
HSK 3
她拦了一辆出租车。
Tā lán le yī liàng chūzūchē.
She hailed a taxi.
HSK 5
保安把他拦住了。
Bǎo'ān bǎ tā lánzhù le.
The security guard stopped him.

Tips

usage
拦 is the go-to verb for physically blocking someone's path. 拦住 = successfully stop, 拦不住 = can't stop. Also used for hailing a cab: 拦出租车.

Components

radical
扌 shǒu
hand (left-side radical form of 手)
Left indexing hand radical (compressed form of 手) - blocking is typically done with arms outstretched and hands spread. The hand-radical anchors 拦 in the family of physical-action verbs: 挡 (block), 抓 (grab), 推 (push). Hailing a taxi is essentially putting your hand out to stop one.
phonetic
兰 lán
orchid (here phonetic)
Right component 兰 (orchid) - supplies the exact sound lán. Pure phonetic, no semantic contribution. Traditional 攔 used 闌 (gate-bar), which was both phonetically and semantically rich (a literal barrier). The simplification chose 兰 for compactness, sacrificing the gate-bar imagery.

Stroke Order

拦 lán