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:

少

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 1

少 (shào)

young

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (少)

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

4 Active Tones

Tone 1chāo

Tone 3shěng

Tone 4shào

Tone 5

Family Characters (13)

Root: 少

少

shào

HSK 1

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

young

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省

shěng

HSK 2

目(eye)

province / to save / to omit

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吵

chǎo

HSK 3

口(mouth)

to quarrel

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沙

shà

HSK 3

氵(water)

to sift

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抄

chāo

HSK 4

扌(hand)

to copy, plagiarize, or raid

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秒

miǎo

HSK 5

禾(grain)

second (unit of time)

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妙

miào

HSK 6

女(woman)

clever, wonderful

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炒

chǎo

HSK 6

火(fire)

to stir-fry

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纱

shā

HSK 7

纟(silk)

纱

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钞

chāo

HSK 7

钅(metal)

money

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紗

Expansion

糹(thread)

—

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耖

chào

Expansion

耒(plow)

harrow-like implement for pulverizing clods of soil; to level ground with such an implement

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鈔

Expansion

釒(money)

—

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