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:

必

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 2

必 (bì)

certainly

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (必)

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

3 Active Tones

Tone 2fú

Tone 4bì

Tone 5

Family Characters (10)

Root: 必

必

bì

HSK 2

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

certainly

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秘

mì

HSK 4

禾(grain)

variant of 秘[mi4]

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泌

bì

HSK 7

氵(water)

used in 泌陽|泌阳[Bi4 yang2] (the name of a place in Henan)

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宓

fú

Expansion

宀(roof)

variant of 伏[Fu2]

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毖

bì

Expansion

比(compare)

careful; to prevent

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瑟

sè

Expansion

玨(guitar strings)

a type of standing harp, smaller than konghou 箜篌, with 5-25 strings

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祕

Expansion

礻(spirit)

—

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謐

Expansion

言(speech)

—

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谧

mì

Expansion

讠(speech)

(literary) quiet; peaceful; tranquil

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铋

bì

Expansion

钅(metal)

bismuth (chemistry)

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