How to Write 砖 (zhuān) — Meaning “Brick”

Imagine a stone (石) that is specially (专) shaped to become a brick. You can also picture a construction worker holding a stone marked with the word "special" to build a wall.

Write the left radical 石 first (5 strokes: horizontal, left-falling, vertical, horizontal, vertical-hook), then the right side 专 (4 strokes: horizontal, vertical, dot, horizontal). A common mistake is writing the dot too low or forgetting the final horizontal stroke of 专, which makes it look like a different character.

砖 (brick) uses 专 on the right and means a building material. 矶 (jī) has 几 (small table) and means a rock or jetty by water. 矸 (gān) has 干 (dry) and refers to waste rock or gangue in mining. The different right-side components change both meaning and pronunciation.

砖 is used literally for bricks in construction words like 砖头 (brick) and 瓷砖 (ceramic tile). Slang like 搬砖 (to move bricks) humorously describes doing hard, repetitive work, especially low-paying jobs. It is a common everyday character even though it is not in the HSK list.

Common words containing 砖 include: 砖头 (zhuān tóu) — Brick; 瓷砖 (cí zhuān) — ceramic tile; 搬砖 (bān zhuān) — to move bricks (slang for hard manual labor).