The Top 10 Chinese Radicals You Must Learn

The idea that China is a "story" is fundamentally enshrined with the phrase "5,000 years of history", but we need look no further than the building blocks of its language to see that this is true. Specifically: the use of Chinese radicals.

The Chinese written language is largely a symbolic system in which written elements combine to form larger elements with new meanings. Known as "radicals", these elements are arranged and re-arranged to form most of the Chinese written language as we know it.

However, as much as we apply rules to this system, exception will always take place. So while Chinese radicals are usually found to the left of a Chinese character, they can also be found to the right, on top, to the bottom, and even inside other elements.

Even so, these building blocks of the Chinese language often provide a short "story" to imbue its character with meaning. For example, the Chinese character for "good" (好, hǎo) combines the radical for "woman" (女, nǚ) with the radical for "child" (子, zi), thereby implying that the ideal state for a woman is to be with a child. Or, to take another example, the Chinese character for "country" (国, guó) puts the character for "jade" (玉, yù) inside a "walled enclosure" (囗, wéi), thereby implying that countries have borders in order to protect their national treasures.

Using radicals to figure out these "stories", however it is to each Chinese learner, is integral to learning how to write Chinese. For that reason, here are the top 10 radicals most-used in Chinese language.

These radicals account for nearly a quarter of all written Chinese characters and, while there are 214 in total, will surely help you towards understanding written Chinese.

1. The Grass Radical "艸" (草）
Radical form: 艹
Chinese name: 草字头 (cǎozì tóu, "grass character head")
Pinyin: cǎo
Used in character like: 草 (cǎo, "grass"), 花 (huā, "flower"), 茶 (chá, "tea")

This grass radical usually appears at the top of Chinese characters associated with vegetation. Like many radicals, this one does not have any inherent meaning of its own (despite whatever Baidu Translate would have you believe). However, it doesn't appear in every plant-related character; for example, no grass radical is used for the word "rose" (玫瑰, méiguī).

2. The Water Radical "水"
Radical form: 氵
Chinese name: 三点水 (sān diǎn shuǐ, "three-points of water")
Pinyin: shuǐ
Used in characters like: 海 (hǎi, "ocean"), 江 (jiāng, "river"), 河 (hé, "stream")

Just about every Chinese character associated with water will use the water radical, usually appearing to the left of the character while the element to the right provides the character's sound and context. Like the grass radical, it does not usually appear in full form but rather reduced to its "three-point" version.

On a related note, Chinese learners should be careful not to confuse the water radical with its point-deficient cousin, the ice radical (冰, bīng) that only consists of two calligraphy marks (冫).

3. The Wood Radical "木"
Radical form: 木
Chinese name: 木字[旁 páng, 头 tóu, 底 dǐ] (mù zì, "wood to the character's side/top/bottom")
Pinyin: mù
Used in characters like: 树 (shù, "tree"), 林 (lín, "forest"), 本 (běn, "original"), 未 (wèi, "not"), 来 (lái, "to come")

Just as you think we can start making up patterns to sort Chinese radicals, along comes the wood radical to mix everything up. Not only does it appear the same way in radical and on its own, but neither is it limited to its "elemental" class by serving as the basis to characters like 本 and 来 while also seen to the left of wood-associated characters like 树 and 林.

4. The Hand Radical "手"
Radical form: 扌
Chinese name: 提手旁 (tí shǒu páng, "hand-carrying side")
Pinyin: shǒu
Used in characters like: 推 (tuī, "to push"), 拉 (lā, "to pull"), 提 (tí, "to carry"), 把 (bǎ, the "subject-object-verb" helper word), 打 (dǎ, "to hit")

The hand radical is a cinch to remember if you consider the story of any character it appears in to be a verb about "doing" something. The "hands-on" approach will shift the hand radical to the left of the character and leave it one stroke less than its 手 counterpart.

5. The Mouth Radical "口"
Radical form: 囗
Pinyin: kǒu
Used in characters like: 呢 (nē, a particle), 只 (zhī;zhǐ, a measure word or "only"), 古 (gǔ, "old"), 喉咙 (hóulóng, "throat")

The first thing that must be said about the mouth radical is that it is easy to get it confused with the enclosure radical (囗), but aside from their identical appearance, it is also easy to distinguish the two.

The mouth radical is often used as a smaller-sized element that commonly appears to the left, while the enclosure radical will appear as the largest element, written last to surround all the other elements (eg 国).

Aside from that, keep in mind that the mouth radical is often used for sentence-ending particles or mouth-related words.

6. The Heart Radical "心"
Radical form: 忄
Chinese name: 竖心旁 (shù xīn páng, "vertical heart side")
Pinyin: xīn
Used in characters like: 怪 (guài, "strange"), 忆 (yì, "memory"), 忘 (wàng, "forget"), 必 (bì, "must")

The heart radical plays both the rule and the exception by appearing in the Chinese written language as both its standard form (心) and its radical form (忄). Often associated with words dealing with important matters of the heart, the heart radical appears to the left in characters like 忆 (remember) as well as underneath in characters like 忘 (forget).

7. The Insect Radical "虫"
Radical form: 虫
Pinyin: chóng
Used in characters like: 蝴蝶 (húdié, "butterfly"), 蚂蚁 (māyǐ, "ant"), 螃蟹 (pángxiè, "crab"), 独 (dú, "only")

The insect radical is used to describe all of the creepy crawlies of the world, as seen by words like "butterfly" (蝴蝶), but also applies to certain animals like crabs (螃蟹) and non-animal-related words like "only" (独).

8. The Bamboo Radical "竹"
Radical form: 竹
Chinese name: 竹字头 (zhú zì tóu, "bamboo character head")
Pinyin: zhú
Used in characters like: 笼 (lǒng, "cage"), 箱 (xiāng, "box"), 笑 (xiào, "laugh") 答 (dā, "answer"), 等 (děng, "wait")

Appearing in the form of two small "k's", the bamboo character is often located at the top of nouns that are constructed out of the common Chinese building material, such as "cage" (笼) or "box" (箱).

9. The Speech Radical "言"
Radical form: 讠
Chinese name: 言字旁 (yán zì páng, "speech character side")
Pinyin: yán
Used in characters like: 说 (shuō, "speak"), 词 (cí, "speech"), 语 (yǔ, "language")

If you've got something to say, the speech radical will help you say it in Chinese by serving as the building block to words like "say" (说) and "speech" (词) and "language" (语). Whereas in Traditional Chinese the speech radical retains its 言 form, the character becomes 讠as a radical in Simplified Chinese.

10. The Silk Radical "糸"
Radical form: 纟
Chinese name: 绞丝[旁 páng, 底 dǐ] (jiǎo sī, silk side/bottom)
Pinyin: sī
Used in characters like: 纸 (zhǐ, "paper"), 给 (gěi, "to give"), 红 (hóng, "red")

The silk radical is commonly used among descriptive adjectives such as colors like red (红) and paper and silk (纸, 丝) while also forming the basis to verbs like "to give" (给).

Images: Laozitao (laoziacademy.com), Calligraphy (paintingschinese.com)

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