Character: 想 (xiǎng) to want

想
Pinyin xiǎng
Meaning to want; to think; to suppose; to miss
Radical 心 繁體字 same
Three writing patterns can be found in the character 想 (xiǎng) to want: 木, highlighted in red; 目, highlighted in yellow; and 心, highlighted in green 木 目
心

writing patterns, not components

Chinese character phono-semantic compoundcategory: phono-semantic compound

Chinese character up down structurestructure: up down

13stroke count

HSK 1

Stroke order of the Chinese character 想 (xiǎng) to want. There are 13 strokes, and the character is written from left top, to right top then the bottom

Breakdown

想 (xiǎng) “to want,” a phono-semantic compound character, has 心 (xīn) “heart” serving as its radical, representing desire, thinking, and feeling. The other part is 相 (xiāng) “appearance,” the phonetic component of this character.

xiǎng
想
to want		 xiāng
相
appearance		 xiāng
箱
box		 shuāng
霜
frost
xīn
心
heart		 xī
息
breath		 jí
急
urgent

Used as a morpheme/word

Wordlist

  • HSK 1: 想 (xiǎng) to want
  • HSK 4: 理想 (lǐxiǎng) an ideal
  • HSK 5: 感想 (gǎnxiǎng) thoughts
  • HSK 5: 幻想 (huànxiǎng) delusion
  • HSK 5: 梦想 (mèngxiǎng) dream

How to pronounce

First, have the middle of your tongue bowed and raised towards the roof, then say “see young” in one syllable.

3rd Pinyin Yale IPA
Initial x- sy [ɕ]
Final -iang yang [ɪɑŋ]

Chinese character practice sheet

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