半
bàn
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Half, or 'and a half' after a number. Before a measure word it means half of one: 半杯水 'half a glass of water'. After one it adds a half: 两个半小时 'two and a half hours'. In clock times, 九点半 is 'half past nine'.
Nửa, hoặc “rưỡi” khi đi sau một số. Đứng trước lượng từ là “nửa”: 半杯水 (nửa cốc nước); đứng sau lượng từ là “rưỡi”: 两个半小时 (hai tiếng rưỡi); nói giờ: 九点半 (chín giờ rưỡi).
NumeralRegister: neutral
Examples
Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check
Sources & notes
Hán-Việt bridge batch 064 (2026-11-14). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ · No Vietnamese entry is linked as its twin; the Hán-Việt reading is given character by character. Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.
Common questions
What does “半” mean?
Half, or 'and a half' after a number. Before a measure word it means half of one: 半杯水 'half a glass of water'. After one it adds a half: 两个半小时 'two and a half hours'. In clock times, 九点半 is 'half past nine'.
Is “半” formal or informal?
半 is generally neutral.