bǐ
pen
我有一支钢笔。
wǒ yǒu yī zhī gāng bǐ.
I have a pen.
他正在用笔写字。
tā zhèng zài yòng bǐ xiě zì.
He is writing with a pen.
请把笔给我。
qǐng bǎ bǐ gěi wǒ.
Please give me the pen.
毛笔 (máo bǐ)
writing brush
钢笔 (gāng bǐ)
fountain pen
墨 (mò)
ink
铅笔 (qiānbǐ)
pencil
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The Chinese character 笔 (bǐ) for "brush" is composed of two parts: 聿 (yù) and 聿 (yù). The left component, 聿, is a pictograph of a hand holding a writing brush. The right component, 聿, is a phonetic component that indicates the pronunciation of the character. The character 笔 (bǐ) is first seen in oracle bone script, the earliest form of Chinese writing, dating back to the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BC). In oracle bone script, the character 笔 (bǐ) is written as a simple combination of the two components 聿 and 聿. Over time, the character 笔 (bǐ) has evolved in its form, but its basic structure and meaning have remained the same.
