Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced bai

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced bai, including 白 bái, 百 bǎi, 败 bài, 摆 bǎi, 拜 bài. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

To say bai, lead with the initial b, then flow without a break into the final ai, holding the tone across the whole syllable.

Initial b

Start the syllable on the initial b, then run straight into the final ai — keep them joined instead of sounding out separate English letters.

Final ai

Settle the final ai into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.

Study Tip

Start with the most common characters (白 bái, 百 bǎi, 败 bài, 摆 bǎi, 拜 bài) and lock in their tones. 6 common characters share the sound bai, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

bai turns up here with 3 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.

2nd tone

Taking the 2nd tone here: 白 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

白báiwhite; snowy; empty; blank; bright; clear

3rd tone

Taking the 3rd tone here: 百, 摆, 柏 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

百bǎihundred 摆bǎipendulum; to place; to display; to swing; to oscillate; to show 柏bǎi / bò(surname); cedar; cypress; cypress; cedar

4th tone

Taking the 4th tone here: 败, 拜 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

败bàibe defeated; to defeat; loss 拜bàito pay respect; worship; visit; salute

Common Words With This Sound

Seeing bai inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.

明白míng baiclear; obvious; unequivocal; sensible 白天bái tiāndaytime; during the day; day 白色bái sèwhite; fig. reactionary; anti-communist 老百姓lǎo bǎi xìngordinary people; the "person in the street"百货bǎi huògeneral merchandise 百分点bǎi fēn diǎnpercentage point 失败shī bàito be defeated; to lose; to fail (e.g. experiments); failure 打败dǎ bàito defeat; to overpower; to beat; to be defeated 腐败fǔ bàicorruption; to corrupt; to rot; rotten 摆脱bǎi tuōto break away from; to cast off (old ideas etc); to get rid of; to break away (from)

Characters

6 common characters in this group.

Character#1 白 báiwhite; snowy; empty; blank; bright; clearTraditional: 白 Character#2 百 bǎihundredTraditional: 百 Character#3 败 bàibe defeated; to defeat; lossTraditional: 敗 Character#4 摆 bǎipendulum; to place; to display; to swing; to oscillate; to showTraditional: 擺 Character#5 拜 bàito pay respect; worship; visit; saluteTraditional: 拜 Character#6 柏 bǎi / bò(surname); cedar; cypress; cypress; cedarTraditional: 柏