What radicals and components are
Most Chinese characters are built from smaller parts called components. 好 (hǎo, good) is 女 (woman) + 子 (child); 明 (míng, bright) is 日 (sun) + 月 (moon).
A radical (部首, bùshǒu) is the one component a dictionary files a character under. A dictionary files every character under exactly one radical, even when it has several components. The radical of 好 is 女, the radical of 明 is 日, and the radical of 你 is 亻, the side form of 人 (person).
Some radicals are characters in their own right (人, 口, 木, 马), and some appear only as parts of other characters (亠, 冖, 辶).
Meaning parts and sound parts
Most characters combine a component that hints at the meaning with one that hints at the sound. The radical is usually the meaning part.
| Character | Meaning part | Sound part | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 妈 (mā) | 女 woman | 马 (mǎ) | mother |
| 河 (hé) | 氵 water | 可 (kě) | river |
| 请 (qǐng) | 讠 speech | 青 (qīng) | to ask, to invite |
| 饭 (fàn) | 饣 food | 反 (fǎn) | rice, meal |
| 钟 (zhōng) | 钅 metal | 中 (zhōng) | bell, clock |
The hints are clues, not rules. Sounds have drifted over the centuries, so a sound part often gives only a similar syllable, sometimes with another tone, and a meaning part names a broad category: 猫 (māo, cat) has the dog radical 犭 because it is an animal.
Why 214 radicals?
The 214 radicals come from the Kangxi Dictionary (康熙字典), compiled for the Kangxi Emperor and published in 1716. It filed about 47,000 characters under 214 radicals, ordered by stroke count from 一 (one stroke) to 龠 (seventeen strokes), and dictionaries followed that system for the next two centuries. Unicode still numbers the radicals the Kangxi way, and most radical charts, including this one, use that list.
Mainland Chinese dictionaries now use a revised standard list of 201 radicals, adjusted for simplified characters. Most of it overlaps with the Kangxi list, so learning the 214 prepares you for either kind of dictionary.
Variant forms: why 水 looks like 氵
Many radicals change shape depending on where they sit in a character. The narrow side form of a radical usually looks quite different from the full one:
| Radical | Side 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 |
| 艸 | 艹 | grass | 花, 茶, 菜 |
| 辵 | 辶 | walking | 这, 进, 还 |
| 火 | 灬 | fire (at the bottom) | 点, 热, 照 |
| 刀 | 刂 | knife | 别, 到, 刚 |
阝 is two radicals. On the left it is 阜 (mound, hill): 阳, 院, 陆. On the right it is 邑 (city, town): 都, 那, 部.
月 is sometimes 肉. On the left side of body words, 月 is really the flesh radical 肉, not the moon: 脑 (brain), 脚 (foot), 肚 (belly).
Simplified forms
Simplified characters also simplified many radicals, especially as side forms. The traditional forms are the ones in the Kangxi list:
| Traditional | Simplified | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 言 (訁) | 讠 | speech | 说, 语, 请 |
| 糸 (糹) | 纟 | silk, thread | 红, 给, 经 |
| 金 (釒) | 钅 | metal | 钱, 银, 错 |
| 食 (飠) | 饣 | food | 饭, 饿, 馆 |
| 門 | 门 | door | 间, 闭, 闪 |
| 貝 | 贝 | shell, money | 贵, 货, 财 |
| 馬 | 马 | horse | 骑, 驾, 验 |
The table at the top of this page shows these simplified forms next to each radical, so you can recognize a radical in either script.
The radicals to learn first
You do not need all 214. A few dozen cover most of the characters a beginner meets. Start with these:
| Radical | Pinyin | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 亻 (人) | rén | person | 你, 他, 做 |
| 口 | kǒu | mouth | 吃, 喝, 叫 |
| 女 | nǚ | woman | 妈, 好, 姐 |
| 氵 (水) | shuǐ | water | 河, 洗, 海 |
| 扌 (手) | shǒu | hand | 打, 找, 拿 |
| 忄 (心) | xīn | heart, feeling | 想, 忙, 怕 |
| 木 | mù | tree, wood | 树, 林, 桌 |
| 日 | rì | sun, day | 明, 早, 晚 |
| 讠 (言) | yán | speech | 说, 话, 语 |
| 艹 (艸) | cǎo | grass, plants | 花, 茶, 菜 |
| 辶 (辵) | chuò | walking, movement | 这, 进, 还 |
| 土 | tǔ | earth | 地, 坐, 场 |
| 宀 | mián | roof | 家, 室, 安 |
| 纟 (糸) | mì | silk, thread | 红, 给, 线 |
| 钅 (金) | jīn | metal | 钱, 铁, 银 |
| 饣 (食) | shí | food | 饭, 饿, 馆 |
| 灬 (火) | huǒ | fire | 点, 热, 照 |
| 目 | mù | eye | 看, 眼, 睡 |
| 足 | zú | foot | 跑, 路, 跳 |
| 衤 (衣) | yī | clothing | 衬, 裤, 被 |
Learn each one with two or three characters you already know. The HSK vocabulary lists are a good source of common words to practice with.
How to look up a character by its radical
Paper dictionaries have a radical index. To find a character you cannot read:
- Find its radical in the radical list, which is ordered by the radical’s stroke count.
- Count the strokes in the rest of the character (the residual strokes). For 妈, the radical 女 has 3 strokes and 马 adds 3.
- In the radical’s section, look under that residual count, find the character, and turn to its page.
Dictionary apps make this easier. Most have a handwriting box and a radical or component lookup where you tap the parts you can see and the app lists every character that contains them. Once you have found the character, you get its pinyin, so you can then type it with a pinyin keyboard and learn its pinyin.
Common mistakes
- Taking the meaning literally. 犭 is "dog", but 猫 is a cat and 猪 a pig: the radical names a category, not the thing.
- Expecting the radical to give the sound. It is usually the meaning part; the sound, when there is a hint at all, is in the other component.
- Assuming the radical is always on the left. It can sit on top (艹 in 花), at the bottom (灬 in 点, 心 in 想), around the outside (囗 in 国), or on the right (刂 in 别).
- Mixing up the two 阝. Left side is 阜 (mound), right side is 邑 (city).
- Counting 辶 by its Kangxi form. Radical 162 is 辵 with 7 strokes in the Kangxi list, but the 辶 you see in 这 and 进 is written with 3.