帮 (bāng): to help, to assist, to support, for sb (i.e. as a help), hired (as worker), side (of pail, boat etc)

帮 (bāng) is a Chinese character meaning “to help.” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 邦 (structural) and 巾 (structural). It ranks #769 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 帮 a nation's 邦 flag 巾; 邦 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 巾 (cloth) appears in many related characters such as 师 (shī, teacher), 常 (cháng, always), 市 (shì, market).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to help
  2. to assist
  3. to support
  4. for sb (i.e. as a help)
  5. hired (as worker)
  6. side (of pail, boat etc)

Etymology & Origin

帮

ideographicA nation's 邦 flag 巾; 邦 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿱邦巾 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Practice writing 帮 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 帮

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
帮助verbbāng zhùassistance3
帮忙verbbāng mángto help2

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
黑帮nounhēi bāngbunch of gangsters
帮派nounbāng pàigang
帮手nounbāng shouhelper
帮凶verbbāng xiōngvariant of 幫凶|帮凶
帮会nounbāng huìsecret society
帮倒忙verbbāng dào mángto be more of a hindrance than a help
帮子nounbāng ziouter (of cabbage etc)
匪帮nounfěi bānggang of bandits
帮工verbbāng gōngto help with farm work
四人帮proper-nounsì rén bāngGang of Four: Jiang Qing 江青, Zhang Chunqiao 張春橋|张春桥, Yao Wenyuan 姚文元[Yao2 Wen2 yuan...
腮帮子nounsāi bāng zicheek
帮厨verbbāng chúhelp in the mess kitchen
帮办verbbāng bànassist in managing
帮腔verbbāng qiāngvocal accompaniment in some traditional Chinese operas
丐帮noungài bāngbeggars' union
45
Total compounds
47
As first character
42
As last character
11
As middle character

帮 appears in 45 compound words: 47 as the first character, 42 as the last, and 11 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 帮 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

助zhù
0.68366,615 co-occurrences
忙máng
0.5393,008 co-occurrences
扶fú
0.5252,552 co-occurrences
残cán
0.4921,990 co-occurrences
疾jí
0.4501,960 co-occurrences
丐gài
0.435206 co-occurrences
队duì
0.4085,058 co-occurrences
寻xún
0.407940 co-occurrences
球qiú
0.3926,980 co-occurrences
们men
0.3903,342 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

越帮越忙yuèbāngyuèmángHSK 3+

to make things worse instead of helping someone

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他在考试中取得了满分,全班同学都很佩服他。

Tā zài kǎoshì zhōng qǔdé le mǎnfēn, quánbān tóngxué dōu hěn pèifú tā.

He achieved full marks in the exam, and all classmates admired him.

TvbsFeb 2026

...次是抓马杜洛!卢比欧“机密汇报”国会8人帮 谈伊朗局势

. . . cì shì zhuā mǎ dù 洛 ! 卢 bǐ ōu jī mì huì bào guó huì 8 rén bāng tán yī lǎng jú shì

... Next is to catch Maduro! Rubio's "confidential report" to the 8-member Congress to discuss the situation in Iran

EtnetFeb 2026

【滙控业绩】滙控:对恒生没有裁员计划,将帮助受影响员工在未来三年内逐步完成转型

滙 kòng yè jì 滙 kòng : duì héng shēng méi yǒu cái yuán jì huá , jiāng bāng zhù shòu yǐng xiǎng yuán gōng zài wèi lái sān nián nèi zhú bù wán chéng zhuǎn xíng

HSBC Holdings: There are no layoff plans for Hang Seng, which will help affected employees gradually complete the transformation in the next three years

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

刺青师夥同竹联帮大哥狂发钓鱼诈骗简讯 107人遭盗刷45...

cì qīng shī 夥 tóng zhú lián bāng dà gē kuáng fā diào yú zhà piàn jiǎn xùn 1 0 7 rén zāo dào shuā 4 5 . . .

The tattoo artist teamed up with the big brother of the Bamboo Union Gang to send fishing scam newsletters 107 people were stolen and brushed 45...

百度新闻Feb 2026

王心迪:在自己圆梦的同时,也帮助徐梦桃圆梦了

wáng xīn dí : zài zì jǐ yuán mèng de tóng shí , yě bāng zhù xú mèng táo yuán mèng le

Wang Xindi: While realizing his dream, he also helped Xu Mengtao realize his dream

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层|一把推子藏着消防“传帮带”的暖与刚

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng yī bǎ tuī zǐ zàng zhe xiāo fáng chuán bāng dài de nuǎn yú gāng

Chinese New Year grass-roots level | a pusher hidden fire "pass on the belt" of the warm and just

Tatoeba

你能用这台相机帮我们拍张照吗?

Nǐ néng yòng zhè tái xiàngjī bāng wǒmen pāi zhāng zhào ma?

Would you take a picture of us with this camera?

Tatoeba

你可不可以帮我把这些句子翻译成中文?

Nǐ kěbu kěyǐ bāng wǒ bǎ zhèxiē jùzi fānyì chéng Zhōngwén?

Can you help me to translate these sentences into Chinese?

Tatoeba

可以帮忙关上窗子吗?

Kěyǐ bāngmáng guānshàng chuāngzi ma?

Close the window, will you?

Tatoeba

请你帮我换一点零钱行吗?

Qǐng nǐ bāng wǒ huàn yīdiǎn língqián xíng ma?

Could you please exchange some small change with me?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced bāng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 帮 (bāng) mean in Chinese?
帮 (bāng) primarily means "to help." It is classified as HSK Level 2, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #769 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 帮 have?
帮 is written with 9 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 帮?
The radical associated with 帮 is 巾 (cloth). This radical appears in many characters related to cloth.
What are the components of 帮?
帮 is composed of: 邦 (structural), 巾 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱邦巾 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 帮?
Common words with 帮 include: 帮助 (bāng zhù, "assistance"); 帮忙 (bāng máng, "to help"); 黑帮 (hēi bāng, "bunch of gangsters"); 帮派 (bāng pài, "gang"); 帮手 (bāng shou, "helper"). There are over 45 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 帮 (bāng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bāng: 邦 ((bound form) country), 棒 (stick), 膀 (upper arm), 绑 (to tie), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 帮 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 帮 and the traditional form is 幇.

Practice writing 帮 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.