Radicals 部首

The building blocks inside Chinese characters — learn to spot them and unlock the meaning of hundreds of words.

What are radicals?

Every Chinese character is built from smaller components called radicals (部首 bùshǒu). A radical hints at a word's meaning or sometimes its sound. For example, characters with the water radical 氵 often relate to liquids, while the speech radical 讠 signals words connected to language. Once you know ~30 common radicals you can make educated guesses about words you have never seen.

氵water → 汉语, 没, 漂亮, 游泳

口mouth → 吃, 喝, 叫, 吗

亻person → 你, 他, 住, 休息

扌hand → 打电话, 找, 报纸