BaoBao Talk
八
bā · eight; all around, all sides
- Pinyin
- bā
- Tone
- first tone, high and level
- Strokes
- 2
- HSK level
- HSK 1
- Radical
- 八
What 八 means
- eight
- all around, all sides
How to remember 八
Its sound decides the scene before you invent anything: the start picks who is in it, the ending picks where, and the tone picks where in that place you are standing.
Actor
the Baker
the b- sound
Place
the Farmhouse
aaah, out in the open air
Tone
the flat forecourt out front
level ground, level pitch
Put the Baker at the Farmhouse, the flat forecourt out front, doing something with the strokes above that means “eight”. That one picture carries the sound, the tone and the meaning at once. How the method works →
Why the Baker? the Baker is a man because the initial stands alone, with no medial after it, and the name starts with B to echo the b- it stands for. All 55 actors →
Stroke order
The diagram above shades the strokes from first to last: the palest stroke is written first, the darkest last. 八 takes 2 strokes.
Characters that use 八
Remember 八, don't just look it up
BaoBao Talk turns each character into a scene built from its own sound and tone, so it has something to hang on. The parts repeat, which is why the hundredth character costs less effort than the tenth.