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:

亥

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

亥 (hài)

12th earthly branch: 9-11 p.m., 10th solar month (7th November-6th December), year of the Boar; ancient Chinese compass point: 330°

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (亥)

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

5 Active Tones

Tone 1gāi

Tone 2hái

Tone 3hǎi

Tone 4hài

Tone 5

Family Characters (21)

Root: 亥

亥

hài

Expansion

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

12th earthly branch: 9-11 p.m., 10th solar month (7th November-6th December), year of the Boar; ancient Chinese compass point: 330°

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孩

hái

HSK 1

子(child)

child

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刻

kè

HSK 2

刂(knife)

quarter (hour), moment, to carve

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该

gāi

HSK 2

讠(speech)

should

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咳

hāi

HSK 5

口(mouth)

sound of sighing, interjection (oh, alas, damn)

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核

hé

HSK 5

木(tree)

variant of 核[he2]; to investigate

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阂

hé

HSK 7

门(door)

obstruct

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骇

hài

HSK 7

马(horse)

to astonish, to startle, or to hack

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劾

hé

Expansion

力(power)

to impeach

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垓

gāi

Expansion

土(earth)

boundary

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氦

hài

Expansion

气(air)

helium (chemistry)

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胲

hǎi

Expansion

⺼(meat)

hydroxylamine (chemistry)

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該

Expansion

言(speech)

—

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賅

Expansion

貝(shell)

—

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赅

gāi

Expansion

贝(shell)

surname Gai; complete

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閡

Expansion

門(door)

—

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陔

gāi

Expansion

阝(city)

step; terrace

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頦

Expansion

頁(head)

—

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颏

kē

Expansion

页(head)

chin

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駭

Expansion

馬(horse)

—

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骸

hái

Expansion

骨(bone)

bones of the body

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