radical Archives - Written Chinese

Use this tool to add tone marks to pinyin or to convert tone number (e.g. hao3) to tone marks.

Although you can use the red buttons to add tone marks, we highly recommend you use the number method (e.g. hao3) for speed and placement of the accent above the correct vowel. [Hint: Type "v" for "ü"]
Note: You do not need to use this tool to enter pinyin in this dictionary.

木字旁 Mu zi pang: The Tree Radical

木字旁 (mù zì pang) or the tree radical, is seen in many Chinese characters with a ‘natural’ meaning such as trees 李子 (lǐ zi) plum tree, fruits such as 橙子 (chéng zi) orange and even wooden objects, such as 柜子 (guì zi) cabinet. It can also be seen in less obvious characters, some of which are featured below. Here are… Read More

三点水 San dian shui: The Water Radical

Chinese characters can often be broken up into smaller pieces, or “radicals.”  These radicals can give clues to a word’s meaning and pronunciation.  One of the easiest radicals to spot in Chinese is 氵 三点水 (sān diǎn shuǐ), or the water radical. If you encounter this radical on the left side of a character, you can be almost certain… Read More

饣字旁 Shi zi pang: The Food Radical

I have previously written about how “Radicals Are Your Friend.” and in this article, I will introduce a specific radical that has been extremely helpful for me to learn: Meet The Food Radical: 食字旁 (shí zì pang) 食字旁 (shí zì pang) or 饣字旁 (shí zì pang), literally means ‘the food one on the side’! This… Read More

Radicals Are Your Friend

It will only take [est_time] to read this post! Here is another one of Bethany’s great posts which is perfect for those of you new to the Chinese language. If you’ve been studying spoken Chinese for a while and now want to learn to read and write Chinese characters, you’ll definitely want to get to… Read More