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:

告

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 1

告 (gào)

to tell, to announce, to sue

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (告)

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

3 Active Tones

Tone 2hú

Tone 4gào

Tone 5

Family Characters (14)

Root: 告

告

gào

HSK 1

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

to tell, to announce, to sue

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靠

kào

HSK 2

非(wrong)

to lean against, rely on, depend on

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造

zào

HSK 3

辶(walking)

to make, build, create, invent

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酷

kù

HSK 6

酉(wine vessel)

cool / ruthless

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浩

hào

HSK 7

氵(water)

grand; vast (water)

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梏

gù

Expansion

木(tree)

braces (med.); fetters

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牿

gù

Expansion

牛(cow)

shed or pen for cattle

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皓

hào

Expansion

白(white)

variant of 皓[hao4]

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窖

jiào

Expansion

穴(cave)

cellar; to store in a cellar

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郜

gào

Expansion

阝(city)

surname Gao; name of a feudal state

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鋯

Expansion

釒(metal)

—

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锆

gào

Expansion

钅(metal)

zirconium (chemistry)

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鵠

Expansion

鳥(bird)

—

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鹄

hú

Expansion

鸟(bird)

swan

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