破 (pò): broken; damaged

Meanings

1 broken; damaged
2 to break; to split; to destroy
3 to expose; to break through

Characters

破

pò

broken; to break; to split

Contains 石 (stone) + 皮 (skin) - stone breaking through skin, something being broken.

Examples

HSK 1

杯子破了。

Bēizi pò le.

The cup is broken.

HSK 3

这双鞋已经穿破了。

Zhè shuāng xié yǐjīng chuān pò le.

These shoes have been worn through.

HSK 6

小偷破门而入。

Xiǎotōu pòmén'érrù.

The thief broke in through the door.

Tips

usage

破 can be a result complement: 打破 (break by hitting), 撕破 (tear apart), 穿破 (wear through).

grammar

破 as an adjective means 'crappy/lousy' in colloquial speech: 这破手机 'this lousy phone.'

Components

radical

石 shí

stone

Stone radical on the left - pictures a rock at the foot of a cliff (厂 + 口). It supplies the meaning here: 破 originally described stone being smashed or split. From that concrete sense came every kind of breaking: 打破 (break), 突破 (break through), 破坏 (destroy).

phonetic

皮 pí

skin; hide

皮 (pí) supplies the sound, with a tone shift to pò. It pictures a hand peeling a hide, which gives 破 a faint flavor of stripping/tearing in addition to the smashing-stone sense from 石. Same phonetic anchors 波 (wave), 坡 (slope), 披 (drape over).