本
Tap the pinyin to hear it
(bound form) root; stem; (bound form) origin; source; (bound form) one's own; this; (bound form) this; the current (year etc); (bound form) original; (bound form) inherent; originally; initially; capital; principal; classifier for books, periodicals, files etc
- HSK 3.0
- Level 1
- Old HSK
- Level 1
- Strokes
- 5
- Radical
- 木 +1
- Structure
- Overlaid 叠加
- Traditional
- 本
- Common rank
- #126
- Unicode
- U+672C
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
Words with 本
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 本子 | book; notebook; Japanese-style self-published comic (esp. an erotic one), aka "dōjinshi"; … | |
| 课本 | textbook; CL:本[ben3] | |
| 本国人 | natives of one's own country | |
| 山本头 | (Tw) "Yamamoto haircut", similar to a butch cut, but with even length (no tapering on the … | |
| 本地人 | native person (of a country) | |
| 本地化 | localization; adaptation (to foreign environment) | |
| 小日本儿 | erhua variant of 小日本[xiao3 Ri4 ben3] | |
| 本人 | I; me; myself; oneself; yourself; himself; herself; the person concerned | |
| 山本 | Yamamoto (Japanese surname) | |
| 本国 | one's own country | |
| 本市 | this city; our city | |
| 日本人 | Japanese person | |
| 机会成本 | opportunity cost | |
| 本地 | local; this locality | |
| 日本学 | Japanology | |
| 里斯本 | Lisbon, capital of Portugal | |
| 大学本科 | university undergraduate course | |
| 有本事 | to have what it takes; (coll.) (often followed by 就[jiu4]) (used to challenge sb) if you'r… | |
| 小本 | small capital; on a shoestring | |
| 本性 | natural instincts; nature; inherent quality |
Sound family
These characters use 本 as their sound component — compare how they read.