话話 huà — speech, words, what is said; a language or dialect; to talk about
huà (fourth tone, falling)
Traditional: 話
speech, words, what is said; a language or dialect; to talk about
8 strokesRadical 言Frequency #266
Pinyin
- huà (fourth tone, falling)
speech, words, what is said; a language or dialect; to talk about
Character breakdown
Ideographic description
⿰讠舌The sequence reads left to right and describes how the parts are arranged.
- 讠meaning partno entry yetThe speech radical.
- 舌shape partno entry yetThe received form writes 舌 "tongue" here, which reads well beside the speech radical. The oldest attested form of the word had a different phonetic element, so this is the shape as inherited rather than a strict etymology.
Mnemonic
Speech 讠 with a tongue 舌 beside it — the words as they actually leave the mouth. Learn it inside its phrases rather than alone: 说话 to speak, 打电话 to make a phone call, 普通话 the common speech, 中国话 spoken Chinese, 听话 to be obedient, literally to listen to what is said.
A memory aid written by HSK Guide editors. It is not an etymology and does not describe the historical origin of the character.
Words containing 话
Radical 言 — other characters
- 说說shuō (first tone, high and level)to speak, to say, to talk; to explain; to tell off (colloquial)
- 认認rèn (fourth tone, falling)to recognise, to identify; to admit, to acknowledge; to accept as inevitable
- 语語yǔ (third tone, dipping)language, tongue; speech, words; a saying
- 让讓ràng (fourth tone, falling)to let, to allow; to make or cause someone to do something; to yield, to give way, to give up a seat
- 记記jì (fourth tone, falling)to record, to write down; to remember, to bear in mind; a note, an account; a mark
- 识識shí (second tone, rising) zhì (fourth tone, falling)to know, to recognise; knowledge; (zhì) to record, an inscription
- 请請qǐng (third tone, dipping)please; to ask, to request; to invite; to treat someone (to a meal)
- 读讀dú (second tone, rising)to read; to read aloud; to study, to attend school
- 谢謝xiè (fourth tone, falling)to thank; thanks; (of flowers) to wither, to fade; Xie, a common surname