Meaning
eight; 8
Chinese: 数字八。
Hear the Four Tones
The same syllable “ba” becomes a different word in each tone. 八 is the 1st tone. Tap any tone to hear a native voice and see its pitch shape.
Stroke Order
Tap Animate to watch the strokes in order, or Practice to trace it yourself.
Common Words
- 八卦bā guàthe eight divinatory trigrams of the Book of Changes 易经; gossip; gossipy
- 乱七八糟luàn qī bā zāo(idiom) chaotic; in disorder; muddled
- 四面八方sì miàn bā fāng(idiom) all directions; all around
- 五花八门wǔ huā bā ménmyriad; all kinds of; all sorts of
- 七嘴八舌qī zuǐ bā shélively discussion with everybody talking at once
Example Sentence
我们班一共有二十八个学生。Wǒ men bān yí gòng yǒu èr shí bā ge xué sheng.Our class has twenty-eight students in total.
我们Wǒ menwe班bānteam一共yí gòngin total有yǒuto have二十èr shítwenty八bāeight个ge(measure word)学生xué shengstudent。
Go deeper
Where this character comes from
A pictograph of two things turned back to back, splitting apart — the original ‘to divide’. It was borrowed for the number ‘eight’ (八月, 十八, 八成); a homophone for 发 (wealth), so it is felt lucky.
A way to remember it
Two strokes splitting apart — the number eight.
Easy to confuse with
- 人‘Person’: the two strokes meet at the top; 八's strokes stay apart.