Chinese radicals: the few dozen that unlock most characters

Radicals are the parts a dictionary files characters under

A radical, 部首(bùshǒu), is the part of a character a dictionary files it under. Every character has exactly one. Mum, 妈(mā), is filed under woman, 女(nǚ). Clear, 清(qīng), is filed under water.

Most radicals are also a hint at meaning. A mum is a woman, and clear water is still water. But a radical's first job is filing, so it isn't always a clue, and we measured how often it is.

The classic list has 214 radicals. It became standard with the Kangxi Dictionary of 1716, and Unicode still numbers radicals that way. China's official table of radicals, revised in 2022, keeps 201 main radicals.

Many radicals change shape when they squeeze into the side of a character. Here are the side forms you'll see most:

Seven side forms that file more than one in five of the HSK 1–4 characters. Source: radical forms and readings from Unicode's Unihan database; our count.

Speech, silk and food have a second, simplified side form, so 说(shuō) and its Traditional form 說(shuō) are filed under the same radical. I'd learn these side forms first: they're the shapes you'll see on every page.

You need a few dozen radicals, not 214

We looked up the radical of every character on the HSK 3.0 reading lists, using the radical numbers in Unicode's database. Only 177 of the 214 radicals turn up at HSK 1–4 at all.

We found them used very unevenly. Mouth, 口(kǒu), files 55 characters by HSK 4, more than any other radical. Dozens of others file just one.

The biggest radicals are the ones you'd expect: mouth, person, hand, tree, water, heart and speech. Walk, silk and earth complete the top ten.

Here's how quickly the radicals add up if you learn them in order of how many characters they file:

The curve climbs fast, then flattens. After about the first 50 radicals, each new one files only a handful of characters, so it isn't worth learning on its own.

Our graded stories tell the same story. In SayMei's 166 books, the top 25 radicals cover half of everything a reader sees on the page.

One caveat: knowing a character's radical isn't knowing the character. The radical narrows down the meaning, and you still learn each character. So I wouldn't learn the full list. Learn the top 40 well, and pick up the rest as you meet them.

Explore the radicals at your level

Pick your HSK level and tap a radical to see every character it files, with pinyin, a short meaning and a recording:

Try water at HSK 1, then at HSK 4. You'll watch it grow from a few characters into a whole family: wash, 洗(xǐ); sea, 海(hǎi); swim, 游(yóu).

Then tap grass, 艹(cǎo), and read its meanings. You'll see why we rate it a weak clue. If you meet a character and wonder where it's filed, type it into the box.

One note if you check another dictionary: we use the 214 Kangxi radicals, as Unicode and many dictionaries do. Mainland China's official table has 201 radicals, with its own numbering and its own rules for filing characters.

So some details won't match. Water is radical 85 here, but 77 in China's table. And China's table counts say, 曰(yuē), as a form of sun, 日(rì), not as a radical of its own.

Some radicals are much better clues than others

Most radicals hint at meaning, but some hints are far better than others. We measured how closely the meanings of each radical's characters hang together, compared with random groups of characters.

The hand radical, 扌(shǒu), came out as the most reliable clue we found. Nearly everything it files is something you do with your hands: hit, 打(dǎ); push, 推(tuī); pull, 拉(lā); wipe, 擦(cā).

Grass, 艹(cǎo), is one of the weakest. It should mean plants, and some of its characters do: tea, 茶(chá), and flower, 花(huā). But it also files blue, 蓝(lán); fall, 落(luò); and festival, 节(jié).

Tree, 木(mù), scored lower than we expected, too. It files tree, 树(shù), but also cup, 杯(bēi), and machine, 机(jī).

Meaning radicals also travel together in words. Many two-character words pair two characters with the same radical, because their meanings belong together:

• Swim, 游泳(yóuyǒng): both characters carry water.
• Take a bath, 洗澡(xǐzǎo): water again.
• Talk, 说话(shuōhuà): both carry speech.
• Forest, 森林(sēnlín): both carry tree.
• Sisters, 姐妹(jiěmèi): both carry woman.

On the HSK 1–6 word lists, about one two-character word in 20 pairs characters with the same radical. That's three times what chance would give.

We also measured which radicals mean similar things to each other. Here are the families that came out of the data:

These families are a ready-made study plan. Learn water, fire and ice together, and walk, foot and run together, and each one reminds you of the others.

Sound parts hint at the pronunciation, sometimes

About half the characters on the HSK 1–4 lists are built from two parts: a radical for meaning and a sound part for pronunciation. Mum, 妈(mā), is woman plus horse, 马(mǎ). The horse is there only for its sound.

The same sound part turns up in many characters, each with a different radical. Here are six of them, with the characters built on them:

Some families are faithful. Every character built on horse is still read ma, and only the tone changes. Others drift: 艮(gěn) gives you very, 很(hěn), and eye, 眼(yǎn), which sound nothing alike.

We checked every sound-and-meaning character on the HSK 1–4 lists. Here's how often the sound part gives you the reading:

Source: our count. Sound parts as labelled in Make Me a Hanzi; readings from Unicode's Unihan database. "Rhymes" means the same final with a different first sound, like qīng and jīng.

That's close to what researchers find for common characters, about 35% regular. And the hint improves as you go on: a study of school Chinese found that the characters children learn first are less regular than the ones they learn later.

My advice: treat the sound part as a guess to check, never as the answer. It's most useful once you know a family, because then a new member is easy to place.

The radicals that combine most are worth learning first

Some radicals pair with far more sound parts than others, and those are the ones that keep paying off as your reading grows. Here are the ten that combine with the most different sound parts across the HSK 1–6 lists:

Source: our count over the HSK 3.0 reading lists (2025 syllabus), with sound parts as labelled in Make Me a Hanzi. At the side of a character, flesh looks like moon.

The list barely changes between beginner and advanced levels. Mouth, person, hand, tree, water, heart and speech file more than a quarter of the HSK 1–4 characters between them, so that's where I'd start.

Watch out for one trap on that list. At the side of a character, flesh, 肉(ròu), shrinks to a shape that looks exactly like moon, 月(yuè). In body words like face, 脸(liǎn), and leg, 腿(tuǐ), that shape means flesh, not moon.

Look for the radical on the left

When you look a character up, start with its left side. Half of the HSK 1–4 characters split into a left and a right part, and in our count the radical is the left part about four times in five.

Characters that split into a top and a bottom are less predictable. The radical sits on top about as often as underneath. Grass, 艹(cǎo), always sits on top, while heart in its full form, 心(xīn), sits underneath, as in think, 想(xiǎng).

You'll rarely use a paper radical index today, since phone dictionaries let you draw a character instead. But the radical still tells you where a character starts, and which family it belongs to.

Use radicals to remember new characters

Radicals turn a character from a picture into a short story, and stories are easier to remember. Here's the routine I'd use for every new character:

1. Name its parts. Please, 请(qǐng), is speech, 讠(yán), plus green, 青(qīng).
2. Give each part its job. Speech carries the meaning, because asking politely is speech. Green carries the sound.
3. Link it to a family. Clear, 清(qīng); feeling, 情(qíng); and sunny, 晴(qíng), share the same sound part.
4. Review it on a schedule. Flashcards with spaced repetition bring it back just before you'd forget it.
5. Meet it in real text. Reading is where the character finally sticks.

One caveat: some radicals are only filing labels. One, 一(yī), files east, 东(dōng), though east has nothing to do with "one". When there's no story, don't force one.

Read with pinyin on every character. SayMei's graded stories have pinyin, audio and an English line for every sentence, and chapter 1 of every book is free. Open the stories

What to do next

• Learn the seven big radicals first. Mouth, person, hand, tree, water, heart and speech, in their side forms.
• Use the explorer at your level. Tap each big radical and read through the characters it files.
• Study in families. Water, fire and ice belong together in your head, just as they do in the data.
• Check sound parts, don't trust them. Guess the reading from the sound part, then confirm it.
• Read every day. Radicals stick when you meet them inside real characters, again and again.

To see how many characters each goal takes, read our guide to how many Chinese characters you need.