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:

肃

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 5

肃 (sù)

respectful, solemn, to eliminate

Family Characters

HSK Words

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

2 Active Tones

Tone 1xiāo

Tone 4sù

Root: 肃

肃

sù

HSK 5

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

respectful, solemn, to eliminate

啸

xiào

HSK 7

(of people) to whistle; (of birds and animals) to screech; to howl; to roar

箫

xiāo

Expansion

xiao, a vertical bamboo flute

骕

sù

Expansion

used in 驌驦|骕骦[su4 shuang1]

鹔

sù

Expansion

used in 鷫鸘|鹔鹴[su4 shuang1]