I’ve taught many introduction courses in Chinese. Each time, I’ve felt the lack of a beginner-friendly radical list. I often tell students that learning character components is essential, that it’s a long-term investment that will pay off several times over the course of their Chinese studies. I then show them some of the most common radicals.

But then what?

Beginners often find it hard to determine which components are common and which aren’t. Sure, you can use the “if you see it more than twice, learn it” rule, but I think we can do better!

Filling a gap

Others lists of common radicals I’ve found are based on data from a very large number of characters. If you base such a list on the 50,000 characters in the Kangxi dictionary, you will end up believing that bird 鸟/鳥 is one of the most common radicals (the first character is simplified Chinese, the second is traditional Chinese; learn more here if you’re not sure what this means).

There’s only one problem: 鸟/鳥 is not even close to being the most important radical for beginners to learn.

If you only take the most commonly used 2,000 characters into account, 鸟/鳥 only occurs nine times. That means it doesn’t even make the top 100!

In other words, while there are many characters that use this radical, most of these characters are not within the most commonly used 2,000 and thus not relevant for beginners or even intermediate learners.

The most common radicals among the most common characters

The list I have compiled here is based on the frequency of the radicals among the 2,000 most commonly used characters. This means that all these radicals are essential. Almost all occur in at least ten characters, most of them in more than that.

As a beginner, you can learn all the radicals on this list without fearing that you’re learning things you don’t actually need. It’s meant to be a solid foundation on which to build.

The list and what it contains



The list I have compiled is presented at the very end of this article (click here to skip to it). However, you probably want to download the list or do something else with it, so here are a few options:

These are the columns used in the list:

Simplified – The full form of the radical in simplified Chinese. Traditional – The full form of the radical in traditional Chinese. Variants – Common variants of the same character. While these may appear very different to a beginner, they are variants of the same character. Meaning – The basic meaning of the radical in English. Pronunciation – How to pronounce the radical in Pinyin. Pronunciations in brackets can be ignored! It means that these characters are mostly used for their meaning and seldom used on their own. Even native speakers might not know the pronunciation of these and will use the colloquial name instead (the last column). Examples – Five examples chosen from the 2,000 most common (simplified) characters to show you the radical in context. Please note that the main goal here is to show the component in a meaningful context (see below for a discussion about the purpose of radicals). Comment – Things worth noting about this radical, often highlighting similarities and differences with other radicals. Colloquial name – The name Chinese people use to refer to the radical. Beginners can ignore this, but learning the most common ones is necessary if you need to talk about Chinese characters in Chinese.

Kickstart your Chinese character learning with the 100 most common radicals

As a beginner, you can use the list to boost your understanding of Chinese characters. Learning these 100 fairly simple characters will enable you to recognise parts of almost any character you will encounter. Of course, you won’t recognise all parts of every character, but it is a good start!

If you want a good tool to learn characters in general, I suggest using Skritter. It’s the only tool that gives you instructive feedback and requires you to write correct characters. It also uses spaced repetition, making learning characters much more efficient. If you want to study this radical list on Skritter, you can find it by clicking here.

You can study this list in Skritter without even creating an account. If you do create an account, though, please use this link so you can get a hefty discount if you then choose to subscribe. You have to sign up on the website to get the discount, but you can then use that account to study on iOS or Android.

As a teacher, you can use this list (or a section of it) to introduce characters and radicals. You can also provide it as extra material for students who want to learn more than what is required by the curriculum. Even if you don’t teach all the radicals yourself, you should at least make it easy for students who wish to do so!

Kickstart your understanding of Chinese characters



Chinese is a wonderful language to learn, partly because it can be hacked so efficiently.

Learning Chinese characters by pure rote takes huge amounts of time, but by learning basic components (such as those in this list), you can make learning characters both meaningful and fun.

Instead of simply writing a character over and over, take a close look at the parts and find creative ways of linking them together.

I have written more about how to learn Chinese characters:

Conclusions and reflections

This list isn’t perfect. In essence, there are two things that would make it even more useful. First, even though this list is weighted according to character frequency, it would be better to not just count occurrences, but to also weigh these. Thus, the 亻 in 他 should count for more than the 亻 in 伪 (僞).

Second, radicals aren’t necessarily the most important building blocks. A radical is really just the part of a character under which the character is sorted in dictionaries. This means that there are other character components that are really common, but which aren’t radicals. Furthermore, since each character has one and only one radical, many of them occur more often as semantic components in characters where they aren’t the radical.

There are many other components that normally carry information about how a character is pronounced. I have written about phonetic components already (Phonetic components, part 1: The key to 80% of all Chinese characters), but I haven’t been able to produce a list similar to this one for sound components. The ideal solution would be to have two lists, one for components that carry meaning and one for components that carry sound, but that’s a project still in progress.

I hope you will find this list useful, and that with it, learning Chinese characters will be meaningful and interesting rather than confusing and frustrating!

Kickstart your character learning with the 100 most common radicals

Below, I have tried to squeeze the list into the format of this article. It’s not likely to look good on a small screen, so if you’re on your phone, either use one of the files/links provided above or switch to a computer.

Skip to comment section!



S T Variant Meaning Pinyin Examples Comments Colloquial 人 人 亻 person rén 今仁休位他 Note similarity with 八, which means eight. 单人旁（亻），人字头（人） 口 口 mouth, opening kǒu 古可名告知 Note similarity with 囗, which always encloses characters, and means enclosure. 口字旁 土 土 earth tǔ 在地型城地 Note similarity with 士, which has a longer upper stroke and shorter bottom one, and means scholar. 提土旁 女 女 woman, female nǚ 好妄始姓安 女子旁 心 心 忄，⺗ heart xīn 必忙忘性想 竖心旁（忄），心字底（心），竖心底（⺗） 手 手 扌，龵 hand shǒu 持掌打抱押 提手旁（扌），看字头（龵），手字旁（手） 日 日 sun, day rì 白百明时晩 Note similarity with 曰, which is broader and lower, and means to say. Also note 白 which means white. 日字旁 月 月 moon, month yuè 有服青朝明 This radical is actually two: moon 月 and meat 肉, but in modern Chinese, they look the same in most cases。 月字旁 木 木 tree mù 板相根本林 Note similarity with 禾, which means grain. 木字旁 氵 氵 水，氺 water shuǐ 永泳海洋沙 Note similarity with 冫, which means ice. 水字旁（水），三点水（氵），泰字底水（氺） 火 火 灬 fire huǒ 灯炎焦然炸 火字旁（火），四点底（灬） 纟 糹 糸 silk (mì) 纪纸累细绩 绞丝旁（纟），独立绞丝（糸） 艹 艹 艸 grass cǎo 花英苦草茶 Note that when the radical is on top, the traditional variant has four strokes. 草字头（艹） 讠 訁 言 speech yán 说讲识评试 言字旁（讠） 辶 辶 ⻍ walk (chuò) 迎通道这近 走之旁（⻌） 钅 釒 金 gold, metal jīn 银针钱铁钟 金字旁（钅） 刂 刂 刀 knife, sword dāo 分切初利刻 Note similarity with 力, which means force. 立刀旁（刂），刀字旁（刀） 宀 宀 roof (mián) 守家室字宅 Note similarity with 冖, which means cover, and with 亠, which means lid. 宝盖头 贝 貝 shell bèi 财贪货贸员 Note similarity with 见, which means to see. 贝字旁 一 一 one yī 三旦正百天 横 力 力 power, force lì 力加助勉男 Note similarity with 刀, which means knife. 力字旁 又 又 right hand yòu 反取受左友 又字旁 犭 犭 犬 dog (quǎn) 犯狂狗献猪 Note similarity with 大, which means big. 反犬旁（犭），犬字旁（犬） 禾 禾 grain (he) 利私季和香 Note similarity with 木, which means tree. 禾木旁 ⺮ ⺮ 竹 bamboo zhú 笑第简筷算 竹子头（竹字头） 虫 虫 insect chóng 強独蛇蛋蚊 Even though this radical means insect, it’s used for many organisms which aren’t insects according to our taxonomy. 虫字旁 阜 阝left mound, dam (fù) 防阻陆院陈 Note that there are two radicals which look like this. On the left, it means mound, dam, and on the right, it means city. 双耳刀（左耳刀） 大 大 big, very dà 天尖因奇美 大字旁（头） 广 广 house on cliff guǎng 店府度座庭 Note similarity with 厂, which means cliff (i.e. without the house). 广字旁 田 田 field tián 思留略番累 田字旁 目 目 罒 eye mù 眼睛看相省 Note that the horizontal version can also mean net. 目字旁（目），四字头（罒） 石 石 stone shí 砂破碑矿码 石字旁 衤 衤 衣 clothes yī 初被裁裤袜 Note similarity with 礻, which means sign, show or spirit. 衣字旁（衤） 足 足 ⻊ foot zú 跑跨跟路距 足字旁 马 馬 horse mǎ 码驾骂驻妈 马字旁 页 頁 leaf yè 顺须领预顶 页字旁 巾 巾 turban, scarf (jīn) 市布帝帐帽 巾字旁 米 米 rice mǐ 类粉迷粗糖 米字旁 车 車 cart, vehicle chē 轮软军较输 车字旁 八 八 eight bā 公分趴兵共 Note similarity with 人, which means human, person. 八字旁（头） 尸 尸 corpse shī 尺局尾居展 Note similarity with 戶, which means door, family. 尸字头 寸 寸 thumb, inch cùn 寺尊对射付 寸字旁 山 山 mountain shān 岩岛岁崗岔 山字旁（头） 攵 攵 攴 knock, tap (pū) 收改攻做政 Note similarity with 夊, which means to walk (slowly). 反文旁（攵），旧反文旁（攴） 彳 彳 (small) step (chí) 彼很律微德 Note similarity with 亻, which means human, person. 双人旁 十 十 ten shí 什计古叶早 十字旁（头） 工 工 work gōng 左江红巧功 工字旁 方 方 square, raft fāng 放旅族仿房 方字旁 门 門 gate mén 间闲问闭闻 门字框 饣 飠 食 eat, food shí 饭饿饮馆饱 食字旁 欠 欠 lack, yawn qiàn 欢欧欲次歌 欠字旁 儿 儿 human, legs ér 元四光兄充 Note similarity with 人, which means human, person, and with 八 which means eight. 儿座底 冫 冫 ice bīng 冬冷冻况净 两点水 子 子 child, seed zǐ 字学存孩季 子字旁 疒 疒 sickness (nè) 病痛疗疯痩 病字旁 隹 隹 (short-tailed) bird (zhuī) 雀集难雅谁 隹字旁 斤 斤 axe (jīn) 所新听近析 斤字旁 亠 亠 lid (tóu) 亡交京 Note similarity with 宀, which means roof, and 冖 which means cover. 点横头 王 王 玉 jade, king yù, wáng 主弄皇理现 This radical is 玉, but when in composition, it looks like 王, king, and is probably more easily remembered like that. 王字旁 白 白 white bái 的皆皇怕迫 Note similarity with 日, which means sun. 白字旁 立 立 stand, erect lì 音意端亲位 立字旁 羊 羊 ⺶，⺷ sheep yáng 着样洋美鲜 羊字旁 艮 艮 stopping (gèn) 很恨恳根眼 艮字旁 冖 冖 cover (mì) 写军农深荣 秃宝盖 厂 厂 cliff (hàn) 厚原厉厅厕 Note similarity with 广, which has ha house on top (the dot). 厂字旁 皿 皿 dish (mǐn) 盆监盟盛盖 皿字底 礻 礻 示 sign, spirit, show shì 社神视祝祥 Note similarity with 衤, which means clothes. 示字旁 穴 穴 cave xuè 空突穷究窗 穴宝盖 走 走 run, walk zǒu 起超越赶徒 走字旁 雨 雨 rain yǔ 雷雪霜需露 雨字头 囗 囗 enclosure (wéi) 回国因图团 Note similarity with 口, which does not enclose other components and means mouth. 国字框 小 小 ⺌⺍ small xiǎo 少肖尚尖尘 小字旁（头） 戈 戈 halberd (gē) 成式战感我 戈字旁 几 几 table jī 朵机风凡凤 几字旁 舌 舌 tongue shé 乱适话舍活 舌字旁 干 干 dry gān 平刊汗旱赶 干字旁 殳 殳 weapon (shū) 段没投般设 殳字旁 夕 夕 evening, sunset xī 外多夜名岁 夕字旁 止 止 stop zhǐ 正此步歪址 止字旁 牜 牜 牛，⺧ cow niú 告物解特件 牛字旁（头） 皮 皮 skin pí 披彼波破疲 皮字旁 耳 耳 ear ěr 取闻职聪联 耳字旁 辛 辛 bitter xīn 辜辟辣辨辩 辛字旁 阝right 阝right 邑 city (yì) 那邦部都邮 Note that there are two radicals which look like this. On the left, it means mound, dam, and on the right, it means city. 双耳刀（右耳刀） 酉 酉 wine (yǒu) 醉酒醒酸尊 酉字旁 青 青 green/blue qīng 请清情晴猜 青字旁 鸟 鳥 bird niǎo 鸦鸣鸭岛鸡 鸟字旁 弓 弓 bow gōng 引张弱第强 弓字旁 厶 厶 private sī 公勾去私云 私字旁 户 户 戶 door, house hù 所房炉护启 Note similarity with 尸, which means corpse. 户字旁 羽 羽 feather yǔ 习翻翅塌扇 羽字旁 舟 舟 boat chuán 般船航盘艇 舟字旁 里 里 village, mile lǐ 野重量理埋 里字旁 匕 匕 spoon (bǐ) 匙比北呢旨 匕字旁 夂 夂 go (slowly) (suī) 各條复备夏 Note similarity with 攵, which means to knock, to rap. 折文旁 见 見 see jiàn 观规视现觉 Note similarity with 贝, which means shell. 见字旁 卩 卩 seal (jié) 卷印却即危 单耳刀 罒 罒 网 net wǎng 罗罚罢罪罩 Note that the horizontal version can also mean net. 四字头（罒） 士 士 scholar shì 吉壶志声壮 Note similarity with 土, which means earth. 士字旁 勹 勹 embrace, wrap (bāo) 包勿勾勺勻 包字头

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