What is a radical?
Most Chinese characters are composed together from smaller parts. 好 (hǎo, good) is 女 (woman) + 子 (child), and 明 (míng, bright) is 日 (sun) + 月 (moon).
In Chinese language dictionary systems, every character is identified by a single radical (部首, bùshǒu). The radical of 好, for instance, is 女, and the radical of 明 is 日. The radical is usually the part that suggests the meaning of the character, while the other part is often related to the character’s sound or pronunciation:
| Character | Meaning part | Sound part | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 妈 | 女 woman | 马 (mǎ) | mā | mother |
| 河 | 氵 water | 可 (kě) | hé | river |
| 饭 | 饣 food | 反 (fǎn) | fàn | rice, meal |
What’s the difference between radicals and components?
A component is any part of a character. A radical is the one component a dictionary files the character under, from a fixed list of 214 (or 201 in mainland dictionaries).
情 (qíng, feeling) has two components, 忄 and 青. Its radical is 忄 (heart) which is associated with the meaning of the character, whereas 青 (qīng) implies the pronunciation. However, 青 is the radical of other characters, like 静 (jìng, quiet).
In short, characters are made up of multiple components, which are like individual units, but each character only has one definitive radical component, which is typically related to the character’s meaning.
Why does the radical of 水 look like 氵?
The shape of a radical may vary depending on its position within a character. Here are some common variations:
| Radical | Other form | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 人 | 亻 | person | 你, 他, 做 |
| 水 | 氵 | water | 河, 洗, 海 |
| 手 | 扌 | hand | 打, 找, 拉 |
| 心 | 忄 | heart | 忙, 快, 怕 |
| 火 | 灬 | fire | 点, 热, 照 |
| 言 | 讠 | speech | 说, 语, 请 |
| 金 | 钅 | metal | 钱, 银, 错 |
| 食 | 饣 | food | 饭, 饿, 馆 |
Which radicals should you learn first?
The most commonly used radicals are the most useful to learn:
| Radical | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| 亻 | person | 你, 他, 做 |
| 口 | mouth | 吃, 喝, 叫 |
| 女 | woman | 妈, 好, 姐 |
| 氵 | water | 河, 洗, 海 |
| 扌 | hand | 打, 找, 拉 |
| 木 | tree, wood | 树, 林, 桌 |
| 日 | sun, day | 明, 早, 晚 |
| 讠 | speech | 说, 话, 语 |
| 艹 | grass, plants | 花, 茶, 菜 |
| 宀 | roof | 家, 室, 安 |
Looking for more examples? Our HSK word lists contain all 11,000 words in the new HSK 3.0.
How many radicals are there?
The list we’ve presented here is from the Kangxi Dictionary (康熙字典), published in 1716, which filed about 47,000 characters under 214 radicals. [1] Most radical charts still use it.
In mainland China however, most dictionaries use a standard list of 201 radicals which have been adjusted for simplified characters. [2]
How do you look up a character by its radical?
The easiest way is a dictionary app, Pleco is the most popular option for Chinese. Draw the character in its handwriting box, or tap the parts you can see in its radical lookup.
In a paper dictionary (if you manage to get your hands on one...), find the radical in the radical index, then count the strokes in the rest of the character. 妈 is 女 plus 3 more strokes, so it is listed under 女 with the 3-stroke characters.
Once you know a character’s pinyin, you can type it with a pinyin keyboard.
Interested in putting your radical skills to the test? Mastering radicals makes character writing easier, since the radicals are reusable components that appear often and are always written in the same stroke order.
Practice writing charactersSources
- Kangxi DictionaryWikipedia
- 汉字部首表 (GF 0011-2009), The Table of Indexing Chinese Character ComponentsMinistry of Education of the People’s Republic of China