Writing Balance Rule: The left component (火) is narrower and slightly compressed, while the right phonetic component (考) is wider and bears the visual weight of the character.
1. Meaning
to roast, grill, bake, or toast
to warm oneself by a fireto test or grill someone (colloquial metaphor)
VerbNeutral#cooking#heat#food preparation
Sample Usage
我们今晚去吃烤肉。
wǒmen jīnwǎn qù chī kǎoròu.
We are going to eat Korean barbecue/roast meat tonight.
面包烤糊了。
miànbāo kǎo hú le.
The bread is burnt/toasted too much.
2. Sound
/[kʰaʊ̯²¹⁴]/Tone: 214
烤
kǎokao3
|
++
ˇ(214)
=kǎo
Initial Consonant
k
Type: Aspirated Velar
Sounds like: k sound as in 'kite'
Aspirated
Airflow Tactile Test: Strong gust of air from throat! Tissue held in front MUST fly forward.
Tongue & Mouth Position: Back of the tongue rises to contact the soft palate, releasing a burst of air.
Final Rhyme
ao
Vowel Group: -a vowel group
Sounds like: -ao rhymes with cow
Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ow'.
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 and rises back up, similar to saying 'What?' in disbelief.
Sandhi: When followed by another 3rd tone syllable, kǎo changes to a 2nd tone (rising 35), e.g., 烤肉 kǎoròu becomes káo-ròu.
👂
Listening trap: Do not confuse the 3rd tone dipping pitch with the 4th tone falling pitch (kào). Ensure you dip and rise.
👋
Physical Tone Gesture: Trace a checkmark in the air: dip down from middle height to low, then sweep upward high.
3. Writing
Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 10 strokes
Writing Balance Rule: The left component (火) is narrower and slightly compressed, while the right phonetic component (考) is wider and bears the visual weight of the character.
4. Components
Radical火 · Fire radical (fire, flame, heat)
Semantic Clue (形旁):火 (Indicates fire, heat, and cooking methods)
Phonetic Clue (声旁):考 (original sound: kao)
The character combines the fire radical (火) on the left with the phonetic component 考 (kǎo, to examine/test) on the right, implying that food is tested and transformed by the fire.
火 Fire semantic clue on the left
考 Phonetic clue on the right providing the sound 'kǎo'
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
5· Phonetic Root: 考 (kǎo)
5. History
Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)
Origin: The character was formed later in Chinese history by combining 火 (fire) to represent the cooking process with 考 (kǎo) to supply the phonetic pronunciation.
Semantic Evolution: Originally denoting the heating or roasting of objects over a fire, it expanded to cover baking, grilling, and toasting modern foods like bread, as well as warming oneself by a hearth.
Roasting over an open fire was one of the earliest culinary techniques in ancient Chinese civilization.
6. Sinosphere
🇻🇳
Sino-Vietnamese
khảo
The Sino-Vietnamese reading 'khảo' preserves the ancient initial consonant cluster, matching the Mandarin tone contour via historical sound laws.
🇯🇵
Kanji (Japanese)
On: コウ (kō) / Kun: あぶ.る (aburu)
🇰🇷
Hanja (Korean)
고
Sound Shift Bridge: Mandarin kǎo corresponds to Sino-Vietnamese 'khảo' and Japanese On'yomi 'kō'.
7. Memory
Vivid Mnemonic Story
You put meat over a blazing FIRE (火) while taking an EXAM (考), so you have to ROAST (kǎo) it quickly before you fail!
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
考
kǎoto test, to examineBase phonetic component without the fire radical.
拷
kǎoto torture, to beatReplaces the fire radical with the hand radical (扌), meaning to strike with hands.
Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)
拷(kǎo)
拷 uses the hand radical (扌), referring to physical interrogation or beating, whereas 烤 uses fire (火) for cooking.
8. Mastery
Active Recall Challenge
周末我们去公园[___]肉吧。
Clue: kǎo
Common Learner Pitfall
Confusing 烤 (kǎo - to roast) with 考 (kǎo - to test) by omitting the fire radical (火) when writing.
Memory Prompts
Recognition: When you see 烤 with the fire radical and 考 sound, what does it mean?
Production: How do you write the character for 'to roast or bake' (kǎo)?
Real-World Video Context
Watch authentic native speakers pronounce and explain this word in real-world YouTube videos.
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烤kǎoto roast; to grill; to bake
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