Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced pao

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced pao, including 跑 pǎo, 炮 pào, 抛 pāo, 泡 pāo / pào, 袍 páo. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

For pao, push a small puff of air on p, join it to ao, and hold the tone over the whole syllable.

Initial p

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

Final ao

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

Study Tip

Start with the most common characters (跑 pǎo, 炮 pào, 抛 pāo, 泡 pāo / pào, 袍 páo) and lock in their tones. 5 common characters share the sound pao, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

pao turns up here with 4 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.

1st tone

Taking the 1st tone here: 抛, 泡 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

抛pāoto throw; to toss; to fling; to cast; to abandon 泡pāo / pàopuffed; swollen; to steep; soak; bubble(s); foam

2nd tone

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

袍páogown (lined)

3rd tone

Taking the 3rd tone here: 跑 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

跑pǎoto run; to escape

4th tone

Taking the 4th tone here: 炮 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

炮pàocannon; gun; firecracker; gun; cannon

Common Words With This Sound

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

跑步pǎo bùto run; to jog; (military) to march at the double 逃跑táo pǎoto flee from sth; to run away; to escape 跑道pǎo dàoathletic track; track; runway (i.e. airstrip)鞭炮biān pàofirecrackers; string of small firecrackers 马后炮mǎ hòu pào(Chinese chess) moving the cannon after moving the horse away; (fig.) a useless action or comment; sth done after it's too late 大炮dà pàobig gun; cannon; artillery; one who talks big 抛弃pāo qìto abandon; to discard; to renounce; to dump (sb)抛开pāo kāito throw out; to get rid of 抛出pāo chūto toss; to throw out 泡沫pào mòfoam; (soap) bubble; (economic) bubble

Characters

5 common characters in this group.

Character#1 跑 pǎoto run; to escapeTraditional: 跑 Character#2 炮 pàocannon; gun; firecracker; gun; cannonTraditional: 炮 Character#3 抛 pāoto throw; to toss; to fling; to cast; to abandonTraditional: 拋 Character#4 泡 pāo / pàopuffed; swollen; to steep; soak; bubble(s); foamTraditional: 泡 Character#5 袍 páogown (lined)Traditional: 袍