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:

可

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 2

可 (kě)

can, may, to approve, but

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (可)

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

4 Active Tones

Tone 1ā

Tone 2hé

Tone 3kě

Tone 5

Family Characters (17)

Root: 可

可

kě

HSK 2

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

can, may, to approve, but

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河

hé

HSK 2

氵(water)

river

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阿

HSK 4

阝(city)

prefix for names and nicknames / used in foreign transliterations / abbreviation for countries

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呵

HSK 7

口(mouth)

variant of 啊[a1]

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苛

kē

HSK 7

艹(plants)

severe, exacting

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哿

gě

Expansion

加(add)

excellent; happy

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坷

kē

Expansion

土(earth)

used in 坷垃[ke1 la1]

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岢

kě

Expansion

山(mountain)

used in 岢嵐|岢岚[Ke3 lan2]

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柯

kē

Expansion

木(tree)

surname Ke; (literary) branch; stem; stalk

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疴

kē

Expansion

疒(sickness)

(literary) disease; also pr. [e1]

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舸

gě

Expansion

舟(boat)

barge

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蚵

Expansion

虫(insect)

(Tw) oyster (from Taiwanese, Tai-lo pr. [ô])

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訶

Expansion

言(speech)

—

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诃

hē

Expansion

讠(speech)

to scold

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軻

Expansion

車(car)

—

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轲

kē

Expansion

车(car)

given name of Mencius

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钶

kē

Expansion

钅(metal)

columbium

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