Character: 怎 (zěn) how

怎
Pinyin zěn
Meaning how; what; why
Radical 心 繁體字 same
Two writing patterns can be found in the character 怎 (zěn) how: 乍, highlighted in red; and 心, highlighted in yellow 乍
心

writing patterns, not components

Chinese character phono-semantic compoundcategory: phono-semantic compound

Chinese character up down structurestructure: up down

9stroke count

HSK 1

Stroke order of the Chinese character 怎 (zěn) how. There are 9 strokes, and the character is written from top to bottom

Breakdown

怎 (zěn), a phono-semantic compound character, has 心 (xīn) “heart” serving as its radical, indicating the desire to know. The top component is 乍 (zhà) “suddenly,” and it plays a phonetic role.

zěn
怎
how		 zhà
乍
suddenly		 zhà
诈
to cheat		 zhǎ
砟
fragments
xīn
心
heart		 xiǎng
想
to want		 wàng
忘
to forget

Used as a morpheme/word

Wordlist

How to pronounce

This character sounds like the connected ds-en of “kids enable,” but the s is not voiced.

3rd Pinyin Yale IPA
Initial z- dz [ts]
Final -en en [ən]

Chinese character practice sheet

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