半

bàn

adjectivenounadverb★Beginner💡 half

general

Half of something; 50% of a whole

半小时

Half an hour

半杯水

Half a cup of water

💡

Can be used as an adjective, noun, or adverb depending on context

informal

Approximately; roughly (when used as an adverb)

半小时后

About half an hour later

半个多小时

About half an hour

💡

In this sense, it often appears with '多' to indicate approximation

Collocations

半小时half an hour半天half a day半夜midnight半途halfway半开玩笑half joking

to give up halfway

half-believing and half-doubting

to half-resist and half-agree

When indicating half of a quantity, '半' is often used with measure words like '个', '杯', '小时', etc.

'半' typically comes before the noun it modifies, similar to English 'half'.

From Middle Chinese 'pjonH', meaning 'half'

When used as an adverb, it often appears with '多' to indicate approximation. Can be used with measure words to indicate half of a quantity.

半

half

root

汉英词典