How to Write 抄 (chāo) — Meaning “to copy; to transcribe; to take a shortcut”

Picture your hand (扌) quickly writing down just a few (少) characters to copy a document. This image of a hand moving fast to capture a small amount of text directly links to the meaning "to copy" or "to take a shortcut."

First write the left radical 扌: a horizontal stroke, then a hook, and a vertical stroke. Then write 少: start with a small dot on top, followed by a short downward stroke, a left-falling stroke, and a final hook. A common mistake is forgetting the dot on top of 少 or making the left radical too wide, so keep both parts balanced.

抄 has 扌 on the left and 少 on the right, meaning "to copy." 㧜 is a rare character not used in modern Chinese, with a different right component. 扑 (pū) also uses 扌 but has 卜 on the right, meaning "to pounce" or "to rush at," so visually 抄 has more strokes on the right side.

抄 appears in school and office settings: 抄写 means to copy text, and 抄作业 means to copy homework (often with a negative sense of cheating). In emails, 抄送 means CC (carbon copy). Culturally, copying homework is strongly discouraged, but the character itself is neutral and practical for daily tasks.

Common words containing 抄 include: 抄写 (chāo xiě) — to copy; to transcribe; 抄作业 (chāo zuò yè) — to copy homework; 抄送 (chāo sòng) — to CC (carbon copy).