卡 (kǎ) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

卡

kǎ[ka3]Tone 3

card, to block, calorie

HSK 2

Multiple Readings (多音字):

Guru Deep Dive

English · card, to block, calorie

Cached lesson

1 / 1

Topology:Top-bottom

Strokes:5

Writing Balance Rule: The top element (上) should sit compactly over the bottom element (下), maintaining vertical alignment and centered balance.

1. Meaning

card (loanword)

to blockto get stucktruckcalorie

noun / verbNeutral#technology#action#measurement

Sample Usage

请出示您的身份证。
Qǐng chūshì nín de shēnfèn kǎ.
Please show your ID card.
我的电脑网速太卡了。
Wǒ de diànnǎo wǎngsù tài kǎ le.
My computer internet speed is too laggy/slow.

2. Sound

/[kʰa²¹⁴]/Tone: 214

卡

kǎka3

ˇ(214)

=kǎ

Initial Consonant

Type: Aspirated Velar

Sounds like: k sound as in 'key' or 'cat'

Aspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Strong gust of air from throat! Tissue held in front MUST fly forward.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Back of tongue contacts the soft palate, releasing a strong burst of air.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -a vowel group

Sounds like: a sound as in 'father'

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ah'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T3 (214)

2 → 1 → 4 (214)

3rd Tone (Low-Dipping)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 3 dips low like a skeptical English 'Huh?', then rises back up.

Sandhi: When followed by another 3rd tone, kǎ shifts to a rising 2nd tone (35).

👂

Listening trap: Do not confuse with the 1st tone kā or 4th tone kà; ensure the low dip is clearly articulated before rising.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Trace a checkmark in the air: dip down from chest level, then sweep up high to the right.

3. Writing

Topology: Top-bottom · Strokes: 5 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The top element (上) should sit compactly over the bottom element (下), maintaining vertical alignment and centered balance.

4. Components

Radical 卡 · Up/Down Radical or Sticking Radical (to block or wedge)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 上下 (Combines 'up' (上) and 'down' (下) to show something caught between two points.)

The character visually sandwiches something between 'up' (上) and 'down' (下)—just like a card wedged tightly in a slot, or getting stuck midway.

上 Top component meaning 'up'
下 Bottom component meaning 'down'

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

4· Phonetic Root: 卡 (kǎ)

5. History

Liushu category: Compound ideogram (会意)

Origin: A modern ideographic creation combining 上 (up) and 下 (down) to represent being stuck in the middle, wedged, or blocked. Later adopted as a phonetic loanword for foreign words starting with 'car-' or 'ka-' (like card, calorie, or cassette).

Semantic Evolution: Originally meaning 'to block' or 'to wedge', its semantic scope expanded greatly in the 20th century to transliterate foreign loan words beginning with 'ka', such as 信用卡 (credit card) and 卡路里 (calorie).

A rare example of a character whose modern usage is heavily driven by phonetic loanwords for Western technology and units.

6. Sinosphere

🇻🇳

Sino-Vietnamese

khạp / thẻ

Sino-Vietnamese readings exist in literary dictionaries, but modern usage follows native adaptations.

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: カ (ka)

Sound Shift Bridge: Direct phonetic borrowing for Western words starting with 'ca-' / 'ka-'.

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

Imagine a credit **card** getting **stuck** halfway in an ATM, caught right between going **up** and going **down**.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

下(xià)

下 means 'down' and has only 3 strokes; 卡 combines both 上 and 下 to mean 'stuck' or 'card' with 5 strokes.

上(shàng)

上 means 'up' with 3 strokes, whereas 卡 stacks them together.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

我今天去银行办了一张信用卡[___]。

Clue: kǎ

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the verb meaning (to get stuck/blocked) with its noun meaning (card), or misapplying tone 3 when combining in fast speech.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see 卡, what are its two major semantic realms?

Production: How do you write the character meaning 'card' or 'stuck' that combines 'up' and 'down'?

卡kǎcard, to block, calorie

Speed:

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