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:

正

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 1

正 (zhēng)

first month of the lunar year

View Root Character Page

Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (正)

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

3 Active Tones

Tone 1zhēng

Tone 3zhěng

Tone 4zhèng

Family Characters (9)

Root: 正

正

zhēng

HSK 1

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

first month of the lunar year

Open Deep Dive

整

zhěng

HSK 3

敕(order)

whole

Open Deep Dive

征

zhēng

HSK 4

彳(stepping)

expedition, campaign, to journey

Open Deep Dive

政

zhèng

HSK 4

攵(strike)

political, politics, government

Open Deep Dive

症

zhèng

HSK 6

疒(sickness)

disease, illness, symptom

Open Deep Dive

徵

zhǐ

Expansion

彳(stepping)

4th note in the ancient Chinese pentatonic scale 五音[wu3 yin1], corresponding to sol

Open Deep Dive

怔

zhēng

Expansion

忄(heart)

(bound form) startled; terrified; panic-stricken

Open Deep Dive

罡

gāng

Expansion

罒(net)

stars of the Big Dipper that constitute the tail of the dipper

Open Deep Dive

钲

zhēng

Expansion

钅(metal)

gong used to halt troops

Open Deep Dive