The building blocks of Chinese characters

The 214 Chinese radicals

Radicals are the building blocks of Chinese characters: a radical hints at what a character is about (氵 water, 扌 hand, 讠 speech…). Learn the 50 most common ones first and you will recognise most HSK characters.

214: radicals
1–17: 1 to 17 strokes
★ 50: common radicals
2,971: HSK characters classified

How to learn radicals quickly

1Start with the 50 radicals marked ★ – they appear in most everyday characters.
2Learn the variant forms too (水 → 氵, 手 → 扌, 心 → 忄), as these are what you usually see inside characters.
3Open each radical to see its stroke order and the HSK characters that use it – learning radicals with real characters sticks better.
4When you meet a new character, spot its radical to guess the meaning and look it up faster.

1 stroke6

2 strokes23

3 strokes31

4 strokes34

5 strokes23

6 strokes29

7 strokes20

8 strokes9

9 strokes11

10 strokes8

11 strokes6

12 strokes4

13 strokes4

14 strokes2

15 strokes1

211齒齿chǐToothTooth, teeth, age of person2 HSK chars龄齿

16 strokes2

17 strokes1

214龠yuèFluteThree-holed flute, ancient musical pipes—

FAQ

What is a radical?

A radical is the component used to index Chinese characters in dictionaries, and it often hints at the meaning. The most widely used system is the 214 Kangxi radicals.

Do I need to learn all 214 radicals?

Not necessarily. About 50 common radicals already help you recognise most HSK characters; the rest can be learned as you meet them.

Why does a radical have several forms?

Inside a character many radicals are written in a compressed form (水 becomes 氵, 人 becomes 亻). Simplified Chinese also has its own forms (言 → 讠, 金 → 钅).

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