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:

乍

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

乍 (zhà)

at first; suddenly

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (乍)

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

4 Active Tones

Tone 2zuó

Tone 3zěn

Tone 4zhà

Tone 5

Family Characters (20)

Root: 乍

乍

zhà

Expansion

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

at first; suddenly

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怎

zěn

HSK 1

心(heart)

how

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昨

zuó

HSK 1

日(sun)

yesterday

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咋

zǎ

HSK 6

口(mouth)

dialectal equivalent of 怎麼|怎么[zen3 me5]; Taiwan pr. [ze2]

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窄

zhǎi

HSK 7

穴(cave)

narrow

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诈

zhà

HSK 7

讠(speech)

to cheat

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怍

zuò

Expansion

忄(heart)

ashamed

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柞

zhà

Expansion

木(tree)

used in 柞水[Zha4 shui3] (the name of a place in Shaanxi)

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痄

zhà

Expansion

疒(sickness)

mumps

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砟

zhǎ

Expansion

石(stone)

fragments

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祚

zuò

Expansion

礻(spirit)

blessing; the throne

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笮

zé

Expansion

⺮(bamboo)

board under tiles on roof; narrow

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胙

zuò

Expansion

⺼(meat)

to grant or bestow; sacrificial flesh offered to the gods (old)

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舴

zé

Expansion

舟(boat)

used in 舴艋[ze2 meng3]

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苲

zhǎ

Expansion

艹(plants)

see 苲草[zha3 cao3]

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蚱

zhà

Expansion

虫(insect)

grasshopper

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詐

Expansion

言(speech)

—

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迮

zé

Expansion

辶(walking)

haste; to press

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酢

cù

Expansion

酉(wine vessel)

variant of 醋[cu4]

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阼

zuò

Expansion

阝(city)

steps leading to the eastern door

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