补 (bǔ): to repair; to mend

Meanings

1 to repair; to mend
2 to supplement; to make up for

Characters

补

bǔ

mend; patch; supplement

Contains 衤 (clothing radical) — mending clothes.

Examples

我要补一下衣服。

Wǒ yào bǔ yīxià yīfu.

I need to mend my clothes.

你可以补考。

Nǐ kěyǐ bǔkǎo.

You can retake the exam.

补牙很贵。

Bǔ yá hěn guì.

Filling a tooth is expensive.

Tips

usage

补 appears in many useful compounds: 补课 (make-up class), 补考 (make-up exam), 补牙 (dental filling), 补票 (buy a ticket after boarding).

Components

radical

衤 yī

clothing (radical form)

Left clothing radical — the side-form of 衣. Marks 补 as a clothing-action: the original meaning was to mend a torn garment by sewing on a patch. From this physical patching came the abstract sense of "supplement, make up for." Same radical in 被, 衫, 袖.

phonetic

卜 bǔ

divination (here phonetic)

Right 卜 supplies the sound exactly: bǔ. 卜 itself depicts a crack on a divination bone, the original meaning being "to divine by reading bone-cracks." Pure phonetic role here; the divination meaning has no connection to mending or supplementing. Same phonetic in 朴, 仆.