How to Write 破 (pò) — Meaning “broken / to break”

Picture a heavy stone (石) hitting a leather skin (皮) so hard that it breaks right through. Imagine a rock smashing through a drum to remember that 破 means "to break" or "broken."

Write the left radical 石 first with its standard five strokes, then the right part 皮. Be careful that 皮 starts with a horizontal hook stroke and ends with a right-falling diagonal; the top part of 皮 should be compact, not too wide. A common mistake is making the right side too large, which makes the character unbalanced.

矸 (gān) means a rock or ore and is extremely rare, while 矻 (kū) means to toil or labor and is also uncommon. Unlike 破, these characters do not have the 皮 component and have completely different meanings. 破 is a common HSK 3 word, but 矸 and 矻 are rarely used in modern Chinese.

破 is very common for physical breaking, such as 打破杯子 (break a cup), and abstract destruction like 破坏环境 (destroy the environment). It also appears in the idiom 破釜沉舟 (break the cauldrons and sink the boats), meaning to commit fully to a course of action. Culturally, 破 can symbolize the start of something new after breaking old habits or barriers.

Common words containing 破 include: 破坏 (pò huài) — to destroy / to damage; 破旧 (pò jiù) — shabby / dilapidated; 破产 (pò chǎn) — bankruptcy / to go bankrupt.