Chinese Radicals: 20 Common Radicals and What They Mean
Thousands of Chinese characters are built from a much smaller set of parts. Learn the common radicals, and new characters stop looking like random strokes and start looking like familiar pieces.
By the Memphys team · Updated · 6 min read
What is a Chinese radical?
A radical (部首 bùshǒu) is the part of a character used to sort it in a dictionary. Very often, it also hints at the meaning. Characters with 氵, the water radical, tend to be about water: 河 river, 海 sea, 洗 wash. The traditional Kangxi system has 214 radicals, and modern dictionaries for simplified Chinese use a similar set of about 200. You only need a few dozen to recognize the parts of most everyday characters.
Meaning parts and sound parts
Most characters combine a part that hints at meaning with a part that hints at sound. 妈 mā (mother) joins 女 (woman) with 马 mǎ (horse), which gives the sound, not the meaning. 请 qǐng (please) joins the speech radical with 青 qīng for its sound. The hints aren’t always exact, since pronunciations have changed over centuries, but they are right often enough to be a big help.
Some characters are simply radicals combined for meaning. Put 日 (sun) and 月 (moon) together and you get 明 míng, bright. One 木 is a tree, two make 林 lín, a grove, and three make 森 sēn, dense woods. Together they form 森林 sēnlín, forest.
20 common Chinese radicals
Many radicals change shape when they sit on the left or the top of a character. The full form is shown in brackets.
| Radical | Pinyin | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 亻 (人) | rén | person | 你 you · 他 he · 休 rest |
| 口 | kǒu | mouth | 吃 eat · 喝 drink · 叫 call |
| 氵 (水) | shuǐ | water | 河 river · 海 sea · 洗 wash |
| 木 | mù | tree, wood | 林 grove · 森 forest · 桌 table |
| 扌 (手) | shǒu | hand | 打 hit · 推 push · 扫 sweep |
| 女 | nǚ | woman | 妈 mother · 姐 older sister · 好 good |
| 忄 (心) | xīn | heart, feeling | 想 think · 忙 busy · 快 fast |
| 日 | rì | sun, day | 明 bright · 早 early · 晚 late |
| 月 | yuè | moon; also flesh, body | 胖 fat · 脸 face · 腿 leg |
| 灬 (火) | huǒ | fire | 炎 blazing · 烧 burn · 热 hot |
| 艹 | cǎo | grass, plant | 花 flower · 草 grass · 茶 tea |
| 讠 (言) | yán | speech | 说 speak · 话 words · 语 language |
| 钅 (金) | jīn | metal, gold | 钱 money · 铁 iron · 锁 lock |
| 土 | tǔ | earth, soil | 地 ground · 坐 sit · 城 city |
| 宀 | mián | roof | 家 home · 室 room · 安 peace |
| 辶 | chuò | walk, movement | 这 this · 进 enter · 远 far |
| 纟 (糸) | mì | silk, thread | 红 red · 绿 green · 线 thread |
| 饣 (食) | shí | food, eating | 饭 meal · 饿 hungry · 饺 dumpling |
| 虫 | chóng | insect, small creature | 蜂 bee · 蚁 ant · 蝶 butterfly |
| 目 | mù | eye | 看 look · 眼 eye · 睡 sleep |
How to use radicals to learn characters faster
- Learn the radicals early. A few minutes on 口, 木, 氵 and 亻 pays off in hundreds of characters.
- Break every new character into parts. 休 (rest) is a person 亻 leaning on a tree 木.
- Make a little story. Stories are memory aids, not always the historical origin of a character, but they make shapes stick.
- Write it. Writing a character by hand, in the right stroke order, teaches you its parts better than looking at it.
- Learn families together. Group 吃, 喝 and 叫 by their mouth radical, and each one reminds you of the others.
This is how the Memphys Learn path is built: from radicals to characters, characters to words, and words to short sentences, such as 木 → 林 → 森 → 森林.
Keep reading
- How to Start Learning Mandarin Chinese: A Beginner's PlanWhere to begin, what to learn first and how to keep going a little every day.
- Mandarin Tones: A Beginner's Guide to the Four TonesThe four tones and the neutral tone, the tone changes to know, and how to practice.
- Pinyin Guide: How to Read and Pronounce Chinese PinyinInitials, finals, tone marks and the letters that trip up English speakers.