首 shǒu
- Strokes
- 9
- Radical
- 首 — chief, head, leader
- Made of
- 丷 horns 自 self
- How it's built
- Ideograph — the meaning is built from its parts
首都
shǒudū
capital city
Characters in this word
都 dōu
- Strokes
- 10
- Radical
- 阝 — place, town, city
- Made of
- 者 that which 阝 place, town, city
- How it's built
- Phono-semantic — one part hints at the meaning, another at the sound
Example phrases
- 北京是首都。 Běijīng shì shǒudū. Beijing is the capital.
- 首都很大。 Shǒudū hěn dà. The capital is very big.
- 我去首都。 Wǒ qù shǒudū. I go to the capital.