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Character
部
Strokes10
Radical阝(邑)
HSK4
FrequencyVery common — generally within the 200 most frequent characters in modern Chinese.
部 means a part, section or division of something larger — a department, a ministry, a region of a country. It is also a measure word for films, books and (especially in Cantonese) machines like cars, phones and computers. Learners meet it very early in 部分 ('part') and 全部 ('all, the whole lot').
Mandarinbù · ㄅㄨˋ
Cantonesebou6 · bouh
In 部分 the second syllable is usually neutral: bùfen.
noundepartment, ministry, unit (of a government or organisation)
nounregion, area (used after a direction word: 南部 the south)
measure wordfor films, books, works of literature; and for machines and vehicles (very common in Cantonese: 一部車, 一部手機)
nounmilitary unit; troops (as in 部隊)
How it is built
phono-semantic
Radical 阝(邑). city, settlement (the right-hand 阝 always writes 邑).
阝(邑)meaning on the right; indicates a place, town or administrative district
咅sound phonetic element (pǒu / pou), itself 立 over 口
Origin
A standard phono-semantic character: the right-hand 阝 is a squeezed form of 邑 'city, settlement', giving the sense of a place or administrative district, while 咅 supplies the sound. The Shuowen jiezi glosses it as the name of a locality in the Tianshui area, and the meanings 'district → division → part' developed from that administrative use. Note that the left-hand 阝 (as in 陪, 院) is a different component, a mound or hill (阜); only position tells them apart.
Remembering it
The 阝 on the right is a city. A city is carved into 部 — districts and departments. Keep the rule 'right 阝 = city, left 阝 = hill' and 部 sorts itself out from 陪.
部分 is countable-ish and abstract ('a part of'); do not use it for physical pieces you can break off, where 块/塊 or 片 is better. As a measure word, Mandarin uses 部 mainly for films, phone-books, dictionaries and large works, and 辆/輛 for cars; Cantonese uses 部 much more widely for machinery — 一部車, 一部電腦, 一部相機 — so a Mandarin speaker learning Cantonese should expect it. In place names 部 follows the direction word (東部, 西部), unlike English word order.
Context
Since imperial times 部 has named the great organs of government: the Tang–Qing 六部 ('Six Ministries' — Personnel, Revenue, Rites, War, Justice, Works), and today 外交部 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), 教育部 and so on. 俱樂部 'club' is a sound-and-sense loan from Japanese クラブ/倶楽部, itself borrowed from English.
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