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:

参

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 2

参 (cān)

to take part in, participate, ginseng

View Root Character Page

Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (参)

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

3 Active Tones

Tone 1cān

Tone 3cǎn

Tone 4shèn

Family Characters (9)

Root: 参

参

cān

HSK 2

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

to take part in, participate, ginseng

Open Deep Dive

惨

cǎn

HSK 6

忄(heart)

miserable, wretched, cruel

Open Deep Dive

掺

chān

HSK 7

扌(hand)

to mix, to blend, to dilute

Open Deep Dive

渗

shèn

HSK 7

氵(water)

to seep, to ooze, to horrify

Open Deep Dive

毵

sān

Expansion

毛(hair)

long-haired; shaggy

Open Deep Dive

碜

chěn

Expansion

石(stone)

gritty (of food); unsightly

Open Deep Dive

糁

sǎn

Expansion

米(rice)

to mix (of powders)

Open Deep Dive

骖

cān

Expansion

马(horse)

outside horses of a team of 4

Open Deep Dive

黪

cǎn

Expansion

黑(black)

dark; dim

Open Deep Dive