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:

相

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 2

相 (xiāng)

each other, mutually

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (相)

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

3 Active Tones

Tone 1xiāng

Tone 3xiǎng

Tone 5

Family Characters (9)

Root: 相

相

xiāng

HSK 2

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

each other, mutually

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想

xiǎng

HSK 1

心(heart)

to think, to want, to miss

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箱

xiāng

HSK 3

⺮(bamboo)

box, trunk, chest

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厢

xiāng

HSK 7

厂(cliff)

box (in theater), side room, side

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霜

shuāng

HSK 7

雨(rain)

frost

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廂

Expansion

广(shelter)

—

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湘

xiāng

Expansion

氵(water)

abbr. for Hunan 湖南 province in south central China; abbr. for Xiangjiang river in Hunan province

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缃

xiāng

Expansion

纟(silk)

light yellow color

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葙

xiāng

Expansion

艹(plants)

see 青葙, feather cockscomb (Celosia argentea)

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