Character: 叫 (jiào) to call

叫 (jiào) means to call, the character is visualized as a hand cupping around a mouth to amply the sound it makes
Pinyin jiào
Meaning to call; to be called (name); to shout; to order; to ask
Radical 口 繁體字 same
the written pattern 口, highlighted in red, is found in the character 叫 (jiào) to call 口

writing patterns, not components

Chinese character phono-semantic compoundcategory: phono-semantic compound

Chinese character left right structurestructure: left right

5stroke count

HSK 1

Stroke order of the Chinese character 叫 (jiào) to call. There are 5 strokes, and the character is written from left to right

Breakdown

叫 (jiào) “to call,” a phono-semantic compound character, has 口 (kǒu) “mouth” serving as its radical. It represents the organ we need for speaking. The other component is the ancient character for entangling, 丩 (jiū), which often serves as a phonetic component for other characters.

jiào
叫
to call		 kǒu
口
mouth		 tóng
同
same		 huí
回
to return
jiū
丩
to entangle		 shōu
收
to receive		 jiū
纠
to entangle

Used as a morpheme/word

叫 (jiào) is mainly used as a word.

Wordlist

How to pronounce

This character sounds like “gee owl” spoken in one syllable, but the g is pronounced with unrounded lips, and the l is omitted.

4th Pinyin Yale IPA
Initial j- j [tɕ]
Final -iao yau [ɪaʊ]

Chinese character practice sheet

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