Character: 好 (hǎo) good

好 (hǎo) means good, the character is visualized as woman next to her young child

A woman and her child

 

Pinyin hǎo ; hào
Meaning hǎo: good; well; nice; fine; OK; proper
hào: to be fond of; to have a tendency to
Radical 女 繁體字 same
Two writing patterns can be found in the character 好 (hǎo) good: 女, highlighted in red; and 子, highlighted in yellow 女
子

writing patterns, not components

Chinese character compound ideographcategory: compound ideograph

Chinese character left right structurestructure: left right

6stroke count

HSK 1

Stroke order of the Chinese character 好 (hǎo) good. There are 6 strokes, and the character is written from left to right

Breakdown

好 (hǎo) “good” is formed by the radical 女 (nǚ) “woman” on the left and the other component 子 (zǐ) “son” on the right. This structure is literally that of a mother and her young child together, and the love and caring shared between the two create the meaning “good.”

hǎo
好
good		 nǚ
女
woman		 tā
她
she		 mā
妈
mother
zǐ
子
son		 hái
孩
child		 cún
存
to exist

Used as a morpheme/word

好 can be used as a word or morpheme that means “good” when pronounced using the third tone. It can also be pronounced using the fourth tone, but it is mostly a morpheme that signifies “to be fond of.”

Wordlist

  • HSK 1: 好 (hǎo) good
  • HSK 2: 好吃 (hǎochī) delicious
  • HSK 3: 爱好 (àihào) hobby
  • HSK 4: 好处 (hǎochù) benefit
  • HSK 4: 好像 (hǎoxiàng) as if

How to pronounce

This character sounds like “how,” but the h is pronounced like the Scottish ch, as in “loch.”

3rd/4th Pinyin Yale IPA
Initial h- h [x]
Final -ao au [aʊ]

Chinese character practice sheet

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