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:

耳

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 4

耳 (ěr)

ear

View Root Character Page Kangxi #128 (耳) · View Radical

Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (耳)

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

3 Active Tones

Tone 2róng

Tone 3ěr

Tone 5

Family Characters (6)

Root: 耳

耳

ěr

HSK 4

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

ear

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饵

ěr

HSK 7

饣(food)

bait, lure, food

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洱

ěr

Expansion

氵(water)

see 洱海[Er3 hai3]

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茸

róng

Expansion

艹(plants)

(bound form) (of newly sprouted grass) soft and fine; downy

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铒

ěr

Expansion

钅(metal)

erbium (chemistry)

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餌

Expansion

飠(food)

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