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:

元

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 1

元 (yuán)

Chinese yuan (currency), first, original, primary

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (元)

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

3 Active Tones

Tone 2yuán

Tone 3yuǎn

Tone 5

Family Characters (14)

Root: 元

元

yuán

HSK 1

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

Chinese yuan (currency), first, original, primary

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玩

wán

HSK 1

王(jade)

variant of 玩[wan2]; Taiwan pr. [wan4]

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远

yuǎn

HSK 1

辶(walking)

far

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园

yuán

HSK 2

囗(enclosure)

garden, orchard, park

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完

wán

HSK 2

宀(roof)

to finish / complete

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顽

wán

HSK 6

页(head)

mischievous

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朊

ruǎn

Expansion

⺼(meat)

protein

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沅

yuán

Expansion

氵(water)

Yuan river in Guizhou and Hunan

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芫

yán

Expansion

艹(plants)

used in 芫荽[yan2 sui5]

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蚖

yuán

Expansion

虫(insect)

Protura (soil dwelling primitive hexapod); variant of 螈, salamander

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阮

ruǎn

Expansion

+ 阝

surname Ruan; small state during the Shang Dynasty (1600–1046 BC) located in the southeast of present-day Gansu Province

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頑

Expansion

頁(head)

—

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黿

Expansion

黽(frog)

—

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鼋

yuán

Expansion

黾(frog)

giant softshell turtle

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