BaoBao Talk
铲
chǎn · spade, shovel; trowel, scoop
- Pinyin
- chǎn
- Tone
- third tone, dipping
- Strokes
- 11
- HSK level
- HSK 8
- Radical
- 钅
- Traditional
- 剷鏟
What 铲 means
- spade, shovel
- trowel, scoop
How to remember 铲
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 Chef
the ch- sound
Place
the Antique Shop
AN antique
Tone
the sunken pond in the yard
down into the dip, then back out
Put the Chef at the Antique Shop, the sunken pond in the yard, doing something with 钅 and 产 that means “spade, shovel”. That one picture carries the sound, the tone and the meaning at once. How the method works →
Why the Chef? the Chef is a man because the initial stands alone, with no medial after it, and the name starts with C to echo the ch- 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. 铲 takes 11 strokes.
What 铲 is built from
钅 产
Characters are made of a small number of repeating parts. Learn the parts once and every character that uses them gets easier.
Remember 铲, 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.