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扯 (chě) — to pull, to tug; to tear, to rip; to chat, to gossip

Definition

扯 covers two distinct senses: physical pulling/tearing (overlaps with 拉 'pull/drag' and 撕 'tear'), and colloquial chatting (close to 聊天儿 'chat'). For the chat sense it is casual and can sound dismissive, like 'stop yakking'.

verb
to pullto tugto tearto ripto chatto gossip
Easily confused

Examples

  • 扯。
    Tā chě le wǒ de yī fu yí xià.
    He gave my clothes a tug.
  • 扯。
    Tā bù xiǎo xīn bǎ shū chě pò le.
    She accidentally tore the book.
  • 扯，。
    Nǐ men bié chě le, kuài gōng zuò.
    Stop chatting, and get to work.

Origin

Sound + meaning
六书liùshū
形声xíngshēng

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
手手shǒuhand
Sound part声符shēngfú
止
止zhǐ扯chě
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

扯 has 手 (hand) and 止; the hand part shows it is about hand actions, while 止 gives the sound.

Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Communication & Speech2000 Most Frequent Chinese Words3000 Most Frequent Chinese Words5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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