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:

交

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 2

交 (jiāo)

to hand over; to deliver; to pay (money); to turn over; to make friends

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (交)

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

5 Active Tones

Tone 1jiāo

Tone 2xiáo

Tone 3jiǎo

Tone 4xiào

Tone 5

Family Characters (21)

Root: 交

交

jiāo

HSK 2

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

to hand over; to deliver; to pay (money); to turn over; to make friends

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校

xiào

HSK 1

木(tree)

school

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饺

jiǎo

HSK 2

饣(food)

dumpling

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效

xiào

HSK 3

攵(strike)

variant of 傚|效[xiao4]

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较

jiào

HSK 3

车(car)

relatively, comparatively, to compare

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咬

yǎo

HSK 5

口(mouth)

variant of 咬[yao3]

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郊

jiāo

HSK 5

阝(city)

suburbs, outskirts

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狡

jiǎo

HSK 7

犭(dog)

crafty

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绞

jiǎo

HSK 7

纟(silk)

to twist

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跤

jiāo

HSK 7

足(foot)

a tumble, a fall

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佼

jiǎo

Expansion

亻(person)

handsome

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姣

jiāo

Expansion

女(woman)

surname Jiao; cunning

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洨

xiáo

Expansion

氵(water)

Xiao River in Hebei province; (Tw) (vulgar) semen (from Taiwanese 潲, Tai-lo pr. [siâu])

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皎

jiǎo

Expansion

白(white)

bright; white

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絞

Expansion

糹(thread)

—

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茭

jiāo

Expansion

艹(plants)

Zizania aquatica

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蛟

jiāo

Expansion

虫(insect)

a legendary dragon with the ability to control rain and floods; see also 蛟龍|蛟龙[jiao1 long2]

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較

Expansion

車(car)

—

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餃

Expansion

飠(food)

—

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鮫

Expansion

魚(fish)

—

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鲛

jiāo

Expansion

鱼(fish)

(bound form) shark

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