Phonetic Families & Components

Sound Roots & Semantic Radicals Explorer

Decode Chinese characters by their shared sound roots and see how semantic radicals split their meanings across tones.

Popular Roots:

乌

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 6

乌 (wū)

crow, black

Family Characters

HSK Words

How this root's pronunciation drifts across the Mandarin tone spectrum:

2 Active Tones

Tone 1wū

Tone 4wù

Root: 乌

乌

wū

HSK 6

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

crow, black

呜

wū

HSK 7

(onom.) for humming or whimpering

坞

wù

Expansion

(bound form) low area within a surrounding barrier; (literary) small castle; fort

邬

wū

Expansion

surname Wu; ancient place name

钨

wū

Expansion

tungsten (chemistry)