睬 (cǎi) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

睬

cǎi[cai3]Tone 3

to pay attention

HSK 7

Multiple Readings (多音字):

Guru Deep Dive

English · to pay attention

Cached lesson

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:13

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (Eye radical) and right side (Cai phonetic) must share equal vertical space; keep the left compact to leave room for the right.

1. Meaning

to pay attention to, to take notice of

to acknowledge someoneto care for

VerbNeutralBound morpheme#interaction#cognition#attention

Sample Usage

他理都不理我。
tā lǐ dōu bù lǎi.
He completely ignored me.
不理不睬
bù lǐ bù cǎi
to ignore completely; to pay no attention to

2. Sound

/[t͡sʰaɪ̯²¹⁴]/Tone: 214

睬

cǎicai3

ˇ(214)

=cǎi

Build the syllable

Step-by-step blending

cai

Tone mark placement: Tone mark sits on "a" per main-vowel priority (a > e > o; in -iu/-ui the mark takes the second vowel).

Initial Consonant

Type: Aspirated Dental Sibilant

Sounds like: ts sound like cats without the 'a'

Aspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Sharp burst of air through teeth! Tissue MUST flutter strongly.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Tip of the tongue behind the lower front teeth, ready to release a sharp burst of air.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -a vowel group

Sounds like: ai rhymes with 'eye'

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

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 a disbelieving English question 'Really?'

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

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the initial 'c' (ts-) with 's' or 'j'. Make sure to produce the crisp ts- sound.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Hand starts chest high, dips down low to touch the chest, and sweeps sharply up into the air, mirroring the 214 dip-and-rise contour.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 13 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (Eye radical) and right side (Cai phonetic) must share equal vertical space; keep the left compact to leave room for the right.

4. Components

Radical 目 · Eye Radical (eye, vision)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 目 (Indicates that paying attention or taking notice involves looking with the eyes.)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 采 (original sound: cǎi)

Combining the Eye radical (目) on the left with the picking/harvesting component (采) on the right creates the sense of keeping your eyes open and picking out someone to notice.

目 Eye (semantic clue for attention/vision)
采 Gather/pick (phonetic and semantic clue for cǎi)

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

7· Phonetic Root: 采 (cǎi)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Formed as a phono-semantic compound where 目 (eye) provides the semantic domain of sight and attention, and 采 (cǎi) provides the pronunciation.

Semantic Evolution: Originally related to vision and noticing with the eyes, it evolved to mean paying attention to someone, often seen in compound words like 'bù lǐ bù cǎi' (ignoring someone completely).

Frequently paired with its close synonym 理 (lǐ) in modern vernacular Chinese.

6. Sinosphere

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

You use your EYES (目) to GATHER (采) information when you decide to PAY ATTENTION to someone.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

采

cǎito pick, to gather, to selectPhonetic Core (声旁)

菜

càivegetable, dish, food, or one's weak point+ 艹 (plants)

彩

cǎibright color, variety, applause, lottery prize+ 彡 (hair)

踩

cǎivariant of 踩[cai3]+ 足 (foot)

Explore this family →

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

彩(cǎi)

彩 has the hair/feather decoration (彡) on the right, meaning 'color', whereas 睬 has the eye radical (目) on the left, meaning 'to pay attention'.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

他今天心情不好，谁也不[___]。

Clue: cǎi

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing 睬 (cǎi - pay attention) with 彩 (cǎi - color) due to the shared phonetic part 采.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see 睬, what core action involving the eyes does it signify?

Production: How do you write the character for 'to pay attention' (cǎi) using an eye component?

睬cǎito pay attention

Speed:

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