声 shēng
- Strokes
- 7
- Radical
- 士 — scholar, gentleman
- How it's built
- Ideograph — the meaning is built from its parts
声调
shēngdiào
tone
Characters in this word
调 diào
- Strokes
- 10
- Radical
- 讠 — words, speech
- Made of
- 讠 words, speech 周 Zhou dynasty
- How it's built
- Phono-semantic — one part hints at the meaning, another at the sound
Example phrases
- 普通话有四个基本声调，读错声调可能会改变词义。 Pǔtōnghuà yǒu sì ge jīběn shēngdiào, dú cuò shēngdiào kěnéng huì gǎibiàn cíyì. Mandarin has four basic tones, and reading a tone incorrectly may change the meaning of a word.
- 学汉语的时候，声调是最难的部分。 Xué Hànyǔ de shíhou, shēngdiào shì zuì nán de bùfen. When learning Chinese, tones are the hardest part.
- 老师一遍一遍地纠正我的声调。 Lǎoshī yī biàn yī biàn de jiūzhèng wǒ de shēngdiào. The teacher corrected my tones over and over again.
Related words
- 大声 dàshēng loudly
- 声音 shēngyīn sound; voice
- 小声 xiǎoshēng in a low voice; quietly
- 歌声 gēshēng singing voice
- 声明 shēngmíng statement
- 铃声 língshēng ringtone; ringing sound
- 声 shēng sound
- 相声 xiàngsheng Chinese comic dialogue
- 噪声 zàoshēng noise
- 呼声 hūshēng voice; public demand
- 欢声笑语 huānshēngxiàoyǔ cheerful voices and laughter
- 绘声绘色 huìshēnghuìsè vivid and lifelike