读讀 dú — to read; to read aloud; to study, to attend school
dú (second tone, rising)
Traditional: 讀
to read; to read aloud; to study, to attend school
10 strokesRadical 言Frequency #373
Pinyin
- dú (second tone, rising)
to read; to read aloud; to study, to attend school
Character breakdown
Ideographic description
⿰讠卖The sequence reads left to right and describes how the parts are arranged.
- 讠meaning partno entry yetThe speech radical: in Chinese tradition reading is reading aloud.
- 卖sound partA simplification stand-in. The traditional 讀 has 𧶠 yù on the right; when 賣 was cut down to 卖, every character containing either element was redrawn with 卖.
Mnemonic
Speech 讠 beside 卖 for the sound — and the sound is the give-away that 卖 mài is not doing its own work here: it stands in for an older element 𧶠 yù that simplification swept away. 读书 means both "to read a book" and "to be at school", and 读大学 is to be at university.
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 读
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
- 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)
- 谢謝xiè (fourth tone, falling)to thank; thanks; (of flowers) to wither, to fade; Xie, a common surname