Radical 白

8 strokes

white 白 (22) + ladle 勺 (23b) = of 的

This is a particle which attaches to a noun or phrase to show that it is an attribute. a 的 B means “the B of a”, “the B belonging to a”, “the B of type a”, “the B to which a refers”, etc. (particles are small words which can be hard to translate, but often give a flavor to whole phrases or sentences).

The Chef reaches for his white ladle— the one marked “property of the Chef ”. / His robot assistant rushes over to dust the ladle before he uses it.

wrap 勹 (23a) + a drop 丶 (22a) = ladle 勺

So far, composite characters have been easy to split left-right or top-bottom into two parts, but in this character “wrap” encloses the drop (or, appropriately, “wraps” around it).

This composite character is not in HSK Level a (and is therefore printed in gray), so no pronunciation part of the story is needed.

We will meet “wrap” and “ladle” again later, but they have been introduced here in order to allow you to meet the next character, which is the most common character in Chinese.

When he had wrapped it up he put a drop of perfume on the package even though there was only a ladle inside. / [No pronunciation needed]