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泡

pào / pāo
verb HSK 6 #2,230

Meanings

  1. 1 to soak; to steep; to brew (tea)
  2. 2 bubble; foam; blister
  3. 3 to hang out; to kill time

Examples

我给你泡杯茶。
Wǒ gěi nǐ pào bēi chá.
Let me brew you a cup of tea.
衣服要先泡一泡再洗。
Yīfu yào xiān pào yī pào zài xǐ.
Soak the clothes first before washing.
小孩子在吹泡泡。
Xiǎo háizi zài chuī pàopào.
The kids are blowing bubbles.

Tips

usage
泡茶 is the standard way to say 'make tea' — the verb covers anything you brew by steeping. As a noun 泡 means bubble or blister: 肥皂泡 soap bubble, 水泡 blister.
memory
Water radical 氵 plus 包 (wrap). Water wrapping something = soaking; water wrapping air = bubble. The phonetic 包 also explains why 泡 sounds the way it does.
mistakes
Two readings: 泡 (this entry, soak/bubble — the everyday meaning) and 泡 (puffy/spongy — see the pāo entry). The pāo reading is restricted to a few words like 泡桐 (Paulownia tree) and 眼泡 (puffy upper eyelid).

Components

radical
氵 shuǐ
water (left-side radical)
Three-drop water radical on the left — the side-form of 水. Marks 泡 as a water-related word: bubbles in water, soaking something in liquid, brewing tea. Same family as 沫 foam, 浸 to soak, 滴 a drop.
phonetic
包 bāo
to wrap; bundle
Right side 包 supplies the sound (bāo → pào, regular b/p drift plus tone shift). 包 itself depicts a fetus wrapped inside a womb — the original sense was 'wrapping, enclosing.' That image fits beautifully here: a 泡 is a thin film of water wrapped around a pocket of air. Same phonetic in 抱 hug, 跑 run, 饱 full.

Stroke Order

泡 pào