How to Write 那 (nà) — Meaning “That.”

Imagine a person pointing to a distant hill (the left radical 阝 looks like a hill) and saying 'Nah, that one over there!' The sound 'nà' is like 'nah' in English, so you can associate the shape with pointing and the sound with a casual 'that'.

Write the left radical 阝 first with two strokes: a horizontal sweep with a hook, then a vertical line. Then add the right side: start with a horizontal hook, then two short horizontals, and finish with a left-slanting stroke. A common mistake is making the right side too wide or forgetting the third horizontal line.

The biggest visual difference is that 那 has the 阝 radical on the left, while 邓 and 邗 have it on the right. Additionally, 那 is very common in everyday language meaning 'that,' whereas 邓 is a surname and 邗 is a rare place name, so their usage is completely different.

那 is used as a demonstrative pronoun ('that') and in words like 那里 (there) and 那么 (so/in that case). It is extremely common in spoken Chinese and can also act as a filler like 'well' or 'then' when starting a sentence, for example: 那我们去吃饭吧 (Well, let's go eat).

Common words containing 那 include: 那个 (nà ge) — That one.; 那里 (nà lǐ) — There / Over there; 那么 (nà me) — So; in that case..