苛 (kē) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

苛

kē[ke1]Tone 1

severe, exacting

HSK 7

Guru Deep Dive

English · severe, exacting

Cached lesson

1 / 1

Topology:Top-bottom

Strokes:8

Writing Balance Rule: The top grass radical (艹) should sit lightly and evenly across the top, while the bottom component (可) should be centered and stable underneath with balanced vertical lines.

1. Meaning

severe, exacting, harsh

demandingcriticaloppressive

AdjectiveFormalBound morpheme#personality traits#conditions#governance

Sample Usage

要求苛刻
yāoqiú kēkè
exacting demands / harsh requirements
苛政猛于虎
kēzhèng měng yú hǔ
oppressive government is fiercer than a tiger

2. Sound

/[kʰɤ⁵⁵]/Tone: 55

苛

kēke1

¯(55)

=kē

Build the syllable

Step-by-step blending

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

Initial Consonant

Type: Aspirated Velar

Sounds like: k sound as in 'key'

Aspirated

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

Tongue & Mouth Position: Back of tongue raised against the soft palate

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -e vowel group

Sounds like: rhymes with the 'e' in 'her' or 'uh'

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

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

Tone

T1 (55)

5 → 5 (55)

1st Tone (High-Flat)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 1 is sung at a steady, uninterrupted high pitch, identical to a flat musical note maintained without dipping.

👂

Listening trap: Do not confuse the unrounded final -ē with rounded vowels like -ū; keep the lips relaxed and flat.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A flat, high horizontal line drawn in the air at the top of your vocal range, matching Tone 1 high level pitch.

3. Writing

Topology: Top-bottom · Strokes: 8 strokes

4. Components

Radical 艹 · Grass radical (plants, vegetation)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 艹 (indicates plant connection in ancient taxonomy or metaphorical harshness)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 可 (original sound: kě)

The grass radical (艹) sits atop the phonetic component 'can/may' (可), representing a bitter or harsh plant that one can barely tolerate.

艹 Grass radical (top)
可 Phonetic and structural base (bottom)

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

17· Phonetic Root: 可 (kě)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Combined from the grass radical (艹) indicating vegetation and 可 (kě) supplying the sound. Originally referred to a type of coarse or bitter plant before generalizing to mean severe and exacting.

Semantic Evolution: From bitter herbs to harsh treatment, strict rules, and oppressive taxation.

Often encountered in classical idioms regarding governance and laws, such as 苛政 (oppressive laws).

6. Sinosphere

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: カ / Kun: つうず, からい

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

In the garden, someone planted a patch of bitter weeds under strict (苛) rules: every single blade of grass (艹) must pass (可) an exacting inspection.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

可

kěcan, may, to approve, butPhonetic Core (声旁)

河

hériver+ 氵 (water)

阿

āprefix for names and nicknames / used in foreign transliterations / abbreviation for countries+ 阝 (city)

呵

āvariant of 啊[a1]+ 口 (mouth)

Explore this family →

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

可(kě)

Missing the top grass radical (艹).

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

这家公司的管理非常[___]刻。

Clue: kē

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing it with the standalone word 可 (kě) and forgetting to add the grass radical (艹) on top.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: What does the character 苛 mean when combined in 苛刻?

Production: How do you write the character for 'severe, exacting' (kē) using the grass radical?

苛kēsevere, exacting

Speed:

Searching YouTube for native pronunciation videos...

0 / 0