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:

欠

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 5

欠 (qiàn)

to owe / to lack / yawn

View Root Character Page Kangxi #76 (欠) · View Radical

Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (欠)

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

4 Active Tones

Tone 1chuī

Tone 3ruǎn

Tone 4qiàn

Tone 5

Family Characters (16)

Root: 欠

欠

qiàn

HSK 5

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

to owe / to lack / yawn

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吹

chuī

HSK 2

口(mouth)

to blow

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软

ruǎn

HSK 5

车(car)

variant of 軟|软[ruan3]

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饮

yǐn

HSK 5

饣(food)

to drink

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嵌

kǎn

HSK 7

山(mountain)

see 赤嵌樓|赤嵌楼[Chi4 kan3 lou2]

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炊

chuī

HSK 7

火(fire)

to cook food

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砍

kǎn

HSK 7

石(stone)

to chop, to cut down

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钦

qīn

HSK 7

钅(metal)

respect, admire, imperial

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坎

kǎn

Expansion

土(earth)

pit; threshold

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欽

Expansion

釒(gold)

—

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欿

kǎn

Expansion

臽(pit)

discontented with oneself

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㳄

Expansion

氵(water)

—

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肷

qiǎn

Expansion

⺼(meat)

(usu. of an animal) the part of the side of the body between the ribs and the hipbone

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芡

qiàn

Expansion

艹(plants)

Gorgon plant; fox nut (Gorgon euryale or Euryale ferox)

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軟

Expansion

車(car)

—

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飲

Expansion

飠(food)

—

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