骗 (piàn) · to cheat; to deceive; to swindle

Meanings

1 to cheat; to deceive; to swindle
2 to trick; to fool

Characters

骗

piàn

to deceive; to cheat

Examples

HSK 2

你别骗我！

Nǐ bié piàn wǒ!

Don't lie to me!

HSK 3

他被人骗了很多钱。

Tā bèi rén piàn le hěnduō qián.

He was cheated out of a lot of money.

HSK 5

她的眼泪骗不了我。

Tā de yǎnlèi piàn bù liǎo wǒ.

Her tears can't fool me.

Tips

usage

骗 is very versatile: 骗人 (deceive people), 骗钱 (swindle money), 受骗 (be deceived), 上当受骗 (be taken in). It ranges from playful white lies to serious fraud.

history

The character has 马 (horse) on the left - historically, horse trading was rife with deception. The right side 扁 provides the sound.

Components

radical

马 mǎ

horse

Left horse radical - the indexing radical. Anchors a vivid etymology: 骗 originally meant to mount a horse by leaping onto its side, a maneuver that required tricking or deceiving the animal into accepting the rider. From this concrete riding sense came the abstract "to deceive".

phonetic

扁 biǎn

flat (here phonetic)

Right 扁 supplies the sound (biǎn to piàn with mild aspiration shift). Same phonetic in 篇 (chapter), 编 (to weave), 偏 (slanted). The flatness imagery faintly suggests sliding sideways onto something - possibly evoking the lateral mounting motion the original word described.