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:

殳

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

殳 (shū)

surname Shu; ancient staff-like weapon made of bamboo or wood

View Root Character Page Kangxi #79 (殳) · View Radical

Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (殳)

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

5 Active Tones

Tone 1shū

Tone 2méi

Tone 3gǔ

Tone 4shè

Tone 5

Family Characters (9)

Root: 殳

殳

shū

Expansion

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

surname Shu; ancient staff-like weapon made of bamboo or wood

Open Deep Dive

没

méi

HSK 1

氵(water)

not have; did not

Open Deep Dive

设

shè

HSK 3

讠(speech)

to set up, suppose, given

Open Deep Dive

投

tóu

HSK 4

扌(hand)

to throw, cast, pitch

Open Deep Dive

股

gǔ

HSK 6

⺼(meat)

thigh, share, stock, section

Open Deep Dive

殁

mò

Expansion

歹(death)

to end; to die

Open Deep Dive

觳

hú

Expansion

角(horn)

ancient measuring vessel (same as 斛); frightened

Open Deep Dive

設

Expansion

言(speech)

—

Open Deep Dive

轂

Expansion

車(car)

—

Open Deep Dive