说說 shuō — to speak, to say, to talk; to explain; to tell off (colloquial)
shuō (first tone, high and level)
Traditional: 說
to speak, to say, to talk; to explain; to tell off (colloquial)
9 strokesRadical 言Frequency #19
Pinyin
- shuō (first tone, high and level)
to speak, to say, to talk; to explain; to tell off (colloquial)
Character breakdown
Ideographic description
⿰讠兑The sequence reads left to right and describes how the parts are arranged.
- 讠meaning partno entry yetThe speech radical, the compressed form of 言.
- 兑sound partno entry yet兑 is present for the sound; the same phonetic runs through 脱, 税 and 悦.
Mnemonic
Words 讠 beside 兑, which is here for the sound alone. That phonetic is worth collecting: it also carries 脱 tuō, 税 shuì and 悦 yuè — a family that drifts in pronunciation but stays recognisable on the page. 说 is the plain verb of saying: 你说什么? 说话, 说汉语. Next to it, 讲 leans towards explaining, and 告诉 must have someone to tell.
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 说
Radical 言 — other characters
- 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
- 话話huà (fourth tone, falling)speech, words, what is said; a language or dialect; to talk about
- 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