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:
首
Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 3
首 (shǒu)
head, first, leader
2
Family Characters
2
HSK Words
Tone Fan-out (首)
How this root's pronunciation drifts across the Mandarin tone spectrum:
2 Active Tones
Tone 3shǒu
Tone 4dào
Family Characters (2)
Root: 首首
shǒu
HSK 3Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)
head, first, leader