How to Write 饼 (bǐng) — Meaning “Flatbread / pancake / biscuit”

Imagine a flatbread with the word "bing" printed on it, like a brand name. The left side 饣 reminds you it is food, and the right side 并 looks like a flat shape pressed together. You can also think of "bing" as the sound you make when you bite into a crispy biscuit.

The left radical 饣 is written with a hook stroke at the end, and it should be narrow. The right side 并 begins with a dot on top, followed by two left-falling strokes and then a vertical line. A common mistake is forgetting the dot on top of 并 or making the left side too wide.

饼 (bǐng) means flatbread or biscuit and uses the phonetic component 并, while 饨 (tún) appears in 馄饨 (wonton) and uses 屯. 饩 (xì) refers to sacrificial grains and has a different phonetic part. Visually, the right-hand parts are distinct: 并, 屯, and 气, with 饼 having a dot at the top of its right side.

饼 appears in common food words like 饼干 (cookies) and 月饼 (mooncakes). Mooncakes are especially important during the Mid-Autumn Festival, when people share them with family. The character is also used for other baked flatbreads such as 烧饼 (baked flatbread), which is a popular street food in China.

Common words containing 饼 include: 饼干 (bǐng gān) — Biscuits / cookies; 月饼 (yuè bǐng) — mooncake; 烧饼 (shāo bǐng) — Baked flatbread.