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:

弟

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 1

弟 (dì)

younger brother

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (弟)

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

4 Active Tones

Tone 1tī

Tone 2tí

Tone 4dì

Tone 5

Family Characters (11)

Root: 弟

弟

dì

HSK 1

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

younger brother

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梯

tī

HSK 4

木(tree)

ladder

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递

dì

HSK 4

辶(walking)

to hand over, to pass on, to deliver, progressively

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剃

tì

HSK 7

刂(knife)

to shave

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涕

tì

HSK 7

氵(water)

tears; nasal mucus

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娣

dì

Expansion

女(woman)

wife of a younger brother

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睇

dì

Expansion

目(eye)

(literary) to cast a sidelong glance; (dialect) to see; to look at

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绨

tí

Expansion

纟(silk)

coarse greenish black pongee

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锑

tī

Expansion

钅(metal)

antimony (chemistry)

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鵜

Expansion

鳥(bird)

—

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鹈

tí

Expansion

鸟(bird)

used in 鵜鶘|鹈鹕[ti2 hu2]

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