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:

山

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 1

山 (shān)

mountain

View Root Character Page Kangxi #46 (山) · View Radical

Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (山)

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

3 Active Tones

Tone 1shān

Tone 4càn

Tone 5

Family Characters (12)

Root: 山

山

shān

HSK 1

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

mountain

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仙

xiān

HSK 7

亻(person)

immortal

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灿

càn

HSK 7

火(fire)

glorious, bright, brilliant

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炭

tàn

HSK 7

灰(ashes)

charcoal / coal

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氙

xiān

Expansion

气(air)

xenon (chemistry)

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汕

shàn

Expansion

氵(water)

bamboo fish trap; used in names of places connected with Shantou 汕頭|汕头[Shan4 tou2]

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疝

shàn

Expansion

疒(sickness)

hernia

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籼

xiān

Expansion

米(rice)

long-grained rice; same as 秈

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舢

shān

Expansion

舟(boat)

sampan

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訕

Expansion

言(speech)

—

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讪

shàn

Expansion

讠(speech)

to mock; to ridicule

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赸

shàn

Expansion

走(run)

to jump; to leave

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