拿 (ná): to take, to hold

拿 (ná) is a Chinese character meaning “to take, to hold.” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 合 (phonetic) and 手 (semantic). It ranks #645 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 拿 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to take, to hold

Etymology & Origin

拿

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿱合手 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
拿走verbná zǒuto take away
加拿大proper-nounjiā ná dàCanada
拿下verbná xiàto arrest
拿到verbná dàoto get
拿手adjectivená shǒuexpert in
拿破仑proper-nounná pò lúnvariant of 拿破崙|拿破仑
巴拿马proper-nounbā ná mǎPanama
桑拿nounsāng ná(loanword) sauna
蒙大拿proper-nounméng dà náMontana, US state
捉拿verbzhuō náto arrest
拿撒勒proper-nounná sǎ lèNazareth (in Biblical Palestine)
拿手好戏phrasená shǒu hǎo xìthe role an actor plays best (idiom)
缉拿verbjī náto arrest
拿骚proper-nounná sāoNassau, capital of The Bahamas
拿出verbná chūto take out
84
Total compounds
48
As first character
19
As last character
33
As middle character

拿 appears in 84 compound words: 48 as the first character, 19 as the last, and 33 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 拿 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

加jiā
0.534124,540 co-occurrences
大dà
0.533129,684 co-occurrences
破pò
0.50516,540 co-occurrences
骚sāo
0.4931,750 co-occurrences
捉zhuō
0.4722,482 co-occurrences
下xià
0.45143,624 co-occurrences
捏niē
0.431496 co-occurrences
巴bā
0.42316,179 co-occurrences
督dū
0.4026,352 co-occurrences
缉jī
0.399368 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (9)

巴拿马城Bānámǎ ChéngHSK 4+

Panama City (a city, the capital city of Panama)

狗拿耗子gǒu ná hào ziHSK 6+

lit. a dog who catches mice; to be meddlesome (idiom)

phrase
拿不出手nábùchūshǒuHSK 2+

not presentable, shoddy and too embarrassing to show

adjective
拿手好戏náshǒuhǎoxìHSK 3+

one's forte

phrase
拿铁咖啡nátiě kāfēiHSK 2+

latte

noun
十拿九稳shínájiǔwěnHSK 5+

very certain; in the bag

phrase
挟细拿粗xié xì ná cūHSK 7+

to provoke

phrase
一把死拿yī bǎ sǐ náHSK 4+

stubborn; inflexible

phrase

Showing 8 of 9 idioms containing 拿.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请拿好您的行李,下车时别忘了检查。

Qǐng ná hǎo nín de xíngli, xià chē shí bié wàng le jiǎnchá.

Please hold onto your luggage; don't forget to check when getting off.

Investing 香港Feb 2026

加拿大航空因安全局势暂停墨西哥巴亚尔塔港营运

jiā ná dà háng kōng yīn ān quán jú shì zàn tíng mò xī gē bā yà ěr tǎ gǎng yíng yùn

Air Canada suspended operations in the port of Vallarta, Mexico due to the security situation

LtnFeb 2026

美国男子冰球击败加拿大 1980年以来首夺冬奥金牌

měi guó nán zǐ bīng qiú jī bài jiā ná dà 1 9 8 0 nián yǐ lái shǒu duó dōng ào jīn pái

U.S. men's ice hockey beats Canada to win Winter Olympic gold medal for the first time since 1980

百度新闻Feb 2026

苏翊鸣:能为中国代表团拿下首金,意义比任何事情都重..

sū 翊 míng néng wéi zhōng guó dài biǎo tuán ná xià shǒu jīn , yì yì bǐ rèn hé shì qíng dū chóng . .

Su Yiming: It means more than anything to get the first gold for the Chinese delegation...

百度新闻Feb 2026

冬奥会|冰壶男子循环赛:中国队不敌加拿大队

dōng ào huì bīng hú nán zǐ xún huán sài zhōng guó duì bù dí jiā ná dà duì

Winter Olympics | Men's Curling Round Robin: China Falls to Canada

百度新闻Feb 2026

加拿大国家电视塔“红装”庆春节

jiā ná dà guó jiā diàn shì tǎ hóng zhuāng qìng chūn jié

Canada's CN Tower Dons Red Attire to Celebrate Chinese New Year

Tatoeba

能不能请你拿着这端?

Néng bù néng qǐng nǐ ná zhe zhè duān?

Will you please hold this edge?

Tatoeba

你能帮我拿这个行李箱吗?

Nǐ néng bāng wǒ ná zhège xínglixiāng ma?

Will you please help me carry this suitcase?

Tatoeba

你能拿到架子上的书吗?

Nǐ néng ná dào jiàzi shàng de shū ma?

Can't you reach the book on the shelf?

Tatoeba

你能派人拿一些衣服,好吗?

Nǐ néng pài rén ná yīxiē yīfu, hǎo ma?

Could you send someone up to pick up some laundry?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 手 (hand) component

扌 Radical Family — Characters sharing the hand radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced ná

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 拿 (ná) mean in Chinese?
拿 (ná) primarily means "to take, to hold." It is classified as HSK Level 2, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #645 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 拿 and 给?
拿 (ná) and 给 (gěi) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 扌 vs 纟 (same 合 component).
How many strokes does 拿 have?
拿 is written with 10 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 拿?
The radical associated with 拿 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 拿?
拿 is composed of: 合 (phonetic), 手 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱合手 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 拿?
Common words with 拿 include: 拿走 (ná zǒu, "to take away"); 加拿大 (jiā ná dà, "Canada"); 拿下 (ná xià, "to arrest"); 拿到 (ná dào, "to get"); 拿手 (ná shǒu, "expert in"). There are over 84 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 拿 (ná)?
Several characters share the pronunciation ná: 那 ((specifier) that), 哪 (how), 纳 (to accept, to pay), 呐 (battle cry). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 拿 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 拿 and the traditional form is 㧱.

Practice writing 拿 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.