拍 (pāi): to pat, to clap, to slap

拍 (pāi) is a Chinese character meaning “to pat.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 白 (phonetic). It ranks #1165 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 拍 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 pat
  2. to clap
  3. to slap

Etymology & Origin

拍

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌白 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 拍

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
拍摄verbpāi shèto take (a picture)5
拍照verbpāi zhàoto take a picture3

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
拍卖verbpāi màito auction
开拍verbkāi pāito begin shooting (a movie, a scene of a movie etc)
拍卖会pāi mài huìauction
偷拍verbtōu pāito photograph or film sb without their knowledge or consent
合拍verbhé pāiin time with (i.e. same rhythm)
节拍nounjié pāibeat (music)
拍马屁verbpāi mǎ pìto flatter
拍子nounpāi zibeat (music)
拍手verbpāi shǒuto clap one's hands
拍打verbpāi dato pat
拍戏verbpāi xìto shoot a movie
球拍nounqiú pāi(tennis, badminton etc) racket
抓拍verbzhuā pāito capture (an image)
打拍子dǎ pāi zito beat time
拍板nounpāi bǎnwooden clappers (percussion instrument)
85
Total compounds
45
As first character
33
As last character
22
As middle character

拍 appears in 85 compound words: 45 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 22 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 拍 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

摄shè
0.68060,162 co-occurrences
卖mài
0.5295,242 co-occurrences
照zhào
0.45812,869 co-occurrences
偷tōu
0.4512,654 co-occurrences
絮xù
0.441814 co-occurrences
脆cuì
0.43918 co-occurrences
拖tuō
0.4292,036 co-occurrences
翻fān
0.4154,656 co-occurrences
影yǐng
0.40718,908 co-occurrences
片piàn
0.40413,770 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

吹吹拍拍chuīchuīpāipāiHSK 4+

to boast and flatter

phrase
溜须拍马liūxūpāimǎHSK 7+

to brownnose; to kiss someone's ass; to suck up

phrase
拍案而起pāi àn ér qǐHSK 4+

(idiom) to slam the table and rise to one's feet in indignation

phrase
拍案叫绝pāi'ànjiàojuéHSK 4+

to be astonished and greatly praise

phrase
拍案惊奇pāi'ànjīngqíHSK 4+

to be surprised by the excellence (of something)

phrase
一拍即合yīpāijíhéHSK 4+

to hit it off immediately; things fit together at one go

phrase
一拍两散yīpāiliǎngsànHSK 4+

to part ways; to break up

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他拍起袖子,开始认真地打扫房间。

tā pāi qǐ xiù zǐ , kāi shǐ rèn zhēn dì dǎ sǎo fáng jiān .

He rolled up his sleeves and began cleaning the room thoroughly.

LtnFeb 2026

拍板育儿家长减工时补助 蒋万安:不排除动用...

pāi bǎn yù ér jiā cháng jiǎn gōng shí bǔ zhù 蒋 wàn ān : bù pái chú dòng yòng . . .

Decision to reduce working hours subsidy for parenting Jiang Wan'an: It is not ruled out to use...

LtnFeb 2026

潜入国小偷拍女童如厕判7年2月 恶男二审刑度大减改判...

qián rù guó xiǎo tōu pāi nǚ tóng rú cè pàn 7 nián 2 yuè è nán èr shěn xíng dù dà jiǎn gǎi pàn . . .

Sneaking into a primary school to secretly photograph a girl going to the toilet was sentenced to 7 years and 2 months, and the sentence of the evil man in the second instance was greatly reduced and the sentence was changed...

EttodayFeb 2026

日扭蛋店社长偷拍女客裙底 手机藏2千部影片辩“压力大忍不...

rì niǔ dàn diàn shè cháng tōu pāi nǚ kè qún de shǒu jī zàng 2 qiān bù yǐng piàn biàn yā lì dà rěn bù . . .

The president of the Japanese gachapon shop secretly filmed the female customer's upskirt and hid 2,000 videos on his mobile phone to defend "the pressure is so great that I can't bear it...

LtnFeb 2026

房子被拍卖还被追税?国税局曝“房地合一”致命陷阱...

fáng zǐ bèi pāi mài hái bèi zhuī shuì ? guó shuì jú pù fáng dì gě yī zhì mìng xiàn jǐng . . .

The house was auctioned and taxed? The IRS exposed the fatal trap of "integration of real estate and land"...

StheadlineFeb 2026

...着数套餐 脆辣鸡腿饱餐首次加入 黄泽林首拍“老麦”广告重新演绎经典金句

. . . zhe shǔ tào cān cuì là jī tuǐ bǎo cān shǒu cì jiā rù huáng zé lín shǒu pāi lǎo mài guǎng gào chóng xīn yǎn yì jīng diǎn jīn jù

... The number of set meals crispy and spicy chicken legs was added for the first time Huang Zelin's first shot of the "Lao Mai" advertisement to reinterpret the classic golden sentences

Tatoeba

汤姆拍了不只一张照,是吗?

Tāngmǔ pāi le bù zhǐ yī zhāng zhào, shì ma?

Tom took more than one picture, didn't he?

Tatoeba

我的业余爱好是拍野花的照片。

Wǒ de yèyú àihào shì pāi yěhuā de zhàopiàn.

My hobby is taking pictures of wild flowers.

Tatoeba

给我看看你在巴黎拍的照片吧。

Gěi wǒ kànkan nǐ zài Bālí pāi de zhàopiàn ba.

Show me the photos you took in Paris.

Tatoeba

无人领取的物品被拍卖了。

Wúrén lǐngqǔ de wùpǐn bèi pāimài le.

The unclaimed items were auctioned off.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 拍 (pāi) mean in Chinese?
拍 (pāi) primarily means "to pat." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1165 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 拍 and 百?
拍 (pāi) and 百 (bǎi) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 扌 vs 白 (same 白 component).
How many strokes does 拍 have?
拍 is written with 8 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 拍?
The radical associated with 拍 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 拍?
拍 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 白 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌白 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 拍?
Common words with 拍 include: 拍摄 (pāi shè, "to take (a picture)"); 拍照 (pāi zhào, "to take a picture"); 拍卖 (pāi mài, "to auction"); 开拍 (kāi pāi, "to begin shooting (a movie, a scene of a movie etc)"); 拍卖会 (pāi mài huì, "auction"). There are over 85 compound words containing this character.
Is 拍 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 拍 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 拍 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.