Writing Balance Rule: Keep the left grain radical (禾) compact and slightly narrower than the right side (臼), allowing both halves to sit in stable harmony without spilling over.
1. Meaning
rice plant, paddy rice
hulled grain of rice (usually associated with agriculture)
NounNeutral#agriculture#plants#food
Sample Usage
农民在田里种稻。
nóngmín zài tián lǐ zhòng dào.
Farmers plant rice in the fields.
稻谷丰收了。
dàogǔ fēngshōule.
The rice crops have had a bountiful harvest.
2. Sound
/[tɑʊ̯⁵¹]/Tone: 51
稻
dàodao4
|
++
`(51)
=dào
Build the syllable
Step-by-step blending
dao
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
d
Type: Unaspirated Alveolar
Sounds like: d sound like in 'dog'
Unaspirated
Airflow Tactile Test: No puff of air. Tissue remains still (sounds like English 't' in 'stop').
Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip pressed against the alveolar ridge behind the upper teeth.
Final Rhyme
ao
Vowel Group: -a vowel group
Sounds like: -ao rhymes with the 'ow' sound in 'cow'
Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ow'.
Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.
Tone
T4 (51)
5 → 1 (51)
4th Tone (High-Falling)
Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 starts high and drops sharply like a command or a definitive 'No!'
👂
Listening trap: Confusing the Tone 4 falling pitch with Tone 1 or Tone 3, causing native speakers to mishear the agricultural noun as a completely different word.
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Physical Tone Gesture: Tone 4 is a sharp, authoritative downward nod of the head, matching the falling pitch from 5 to 1.
3. Writing
Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 15 strokes
Writing Balance Rule: Keep the left grain radical (禾) compact and slightly narrower than the right side (臼), allowing both halves to sit in stable harmony without spilling over.
4. Components
Radical禾 · Grain Radical (Cereal grain, plant)
Semantic Clue (形旁):禾 (Indicates that this word relates to grain or crops.)
The grain radical (禾) on the left points to the cereal crop, while the right side (臼) provides the sound and hints at scooping or gathering the harvested grain.
禾 Grain semantic element
臼 Mortar / sound element
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
6· Phonetic Root: 舀 (yǎo)
5. History
Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)
Origin: Combined from the grain symbol (禾) indicating plants growing in the field and the phonetic component (臼), representing the agricultural output of the harvest.
Semantic Evolution: Originally referred specifically to growing rice plants in paddies, eventually expanding to cover related concepts of harvested rice crops.
Rice cultivation has been a cornerstone of East Asian civilization for millennia, making characters related to grain foundational in historical texts.
6. Sinosphere
🇯🇵
Kanji (Japanese)
On: トウ / Kun: いね
🇰🇷
Hanja (Korean)
도
7. Memory
Vivid Mnemonic Story
In the flooded **grain** fields (**禾**), farmers use a large **mortar** (**臼**) to process the heavy stalks of **rice** (**dào**).
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
舀
yǎoto ladle out; to scoop upPhonetic Core (声旁)
蹈
dǎoto tread on+ 足 (foot)
滔
tāo(bound form) to inundate; deluge; torrent+ 氵 (water)