<p>Definitely not for the tone.</p>

<p>As far as pronunciation it is possible to guess from the right hand side of a character, but this is not something that is reliable.</p>

<p>e.g. 根,跟,很,恨,狠</p>

<p>All end in an "en" sound, but this is about as close as you will get.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-13T22:49:58.237Z
2011-12-13T22:49:58.237Z
going
<p>too many characters can be classified into "形声字", which consists of two parts, one (the radical) indicates the topic the character is referred to and the another indicates the possible pronunciation.</p>

<p>xiaohouzi79 shows a good example. But remember, there are some commonly used characters that don't follow this, when you can't read a character, dictionary is your best teacher. </p>

<p>a counterexample is 垠（yin2），and there is a character very similar with 艮，良（liang2）</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-06-20T16:31:18.797Z
``银`` and ``龈`` are also pronounced ``yin2``, so ``垠`` isn't really an exception. H
Stumpy Joe Pete
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-06-20T16:46:36.217Z
[Here's](http://chineseetymology.org/Phonetics.aspx?submitButton2=Phonetic&phoneticInputName=%E8%89%AE) a list of characters with the ``艮`` phonetic.
Stumpy Joe Pete
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-14T10:37:34.987Z
2011-12-14T10:37:34.987Z
Huang
<p>80-90% of Chinese characters are classified as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_classification#Phono-semantic_compound_characters" rel="nofollow noreferrer">phono-semantic compounds</a>. As the name suggests, these characters are composed of:</p>
<ol>
<li>a phonetic component (<em>rebus</em>)</li>
<li>a semantic component (<em>determinative</em>)</li>
</ol>
<p>Such characters are pronounced approximately the same as the rebus (subject to tone and initial consonants generally).</p>
<p>The phonetic component most often occurs on the right hand side of the character, but may also appear on the bottom (and more rarely in other positions):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>有边念边，没边念中间吗，没有中间，自己编.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are approximately ~1000 such phonetic components, so if you can recognise the majority of these you can approximate the majority of character pronunciations. For example:</p>
<div class="s-table-container">
<table class="s-table">
<thead>
<tr>
<th><sub>Determinative</sub> ╲ <sup>Rebus</sup></th>
<th>青 (qīng)</th>
<th>及 (jí)</th>
<th>可 (kě)</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>氵</strong></td>
<td>清 (qīng)</td>
<td>汲 (jí)</td>
<td>河 (hé)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>日</strong></td>
<td>晴 (qíng)</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>心</strong></td>
<td>情 (qíng)</td>
<td>忣 (jí)</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>讠</strong></td>
<td>请 (qǐng)</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>米</strong></td>
<td>精 (jīng)</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div><hr />
<p>For other classes of words, or more opaque compounds, the pronunciation will just have to be memorised (like e.g. <em>through, cough, though, bough</em> in English).</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-28T12:45:46.670Z
2021-04-28T12:45:46.670Z
大胳膊雅各布
<p>Yes, for example these characters are taken from a Chinese grammar textbook:</p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GmFjc.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>

<p>There are obviously others, but as you can see, it's possible to guess the pronunciation. In other cases, according to the radicals, you can understand if they refer to a certain "topic", for example, the third one in that list is the radical for <em>"water"</em>, the last one is the radical for <em>"fire"</em>, and so on.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-13T22:52:14.137Z
As xiaohouzi79 said, the tone is not "guessable", but at least the rest is understandable.
Alenanno
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-13T23:06:50.613Z
Sometimes this similarities in parts of two character do match the same tone also, but all in all it's not an exact equivalence, and more a hint once you get to know a fair amount of characters.
Petruza
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-13T23:17:42.080Z
Yes, @Petruza that's what I meant with my answer... It's more of a hint rather than a regular pattern or something similar.
Alenanno
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-13T22:49:49.757Z
2011-12-13T22:49:49.757Z
Alenanno
<p>Is there any way to know what a character's pronunciation or tone is, based on the strokes or radicals that make up the characters?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-28T10:52:31.193Z
Related: https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/6240/how-do-chinese-speakers-pronounce-unknown-characters
大胳膊雅各布
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-14T13:16:05.853Z
also look up `ghoti`'s pronunciation.
Flaw
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-14T13:36:33.127Z
@Flaw sorry, you've lost me - maybe I'm being a bit dense, but how does this relate to the question?
Cocowalla
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-14T14:52:18.300Z
It's just something to illustrate that even in English we cannot accurately predict how the word is pronounced based on how it's written.
Flaw
<reading><pronunciation><tones>
Character Pronunciation Clues
# Character Pronunciation Clues

(Asked by: username_0 on 2011-12-13)

Is there any way to know what a character's pronunciation or tone is, based on the strokes or radicals that make up the characters?

**Tags:** reading, pronunciation, tones
> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: also look up `ghoti`'s pronunciation.  
> **username_0**: @Flaw sorry, you've lost me - maybe I'm being a bit dense, but how does this relate to the question?  
> **username_2**: It's just something to illustrate that even in English we cannot accurately predict how the word is pronounced based on how it's written.  
> **username_1**: Related: https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/6240/how-do-chinese-speakers-pronounce-unknown-characters  

---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_6 on 2011-12-13. Score: 12 | Accepted answer

Yes, for example these characters are taken from a Chinese grammar textbook:

![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/GmFjc.png)

There are obviously others, but as you can see, it's possible to guess the pronunciation. In other cases, according to the radicals, you can understand if they refer to a certain "topic", for example, the third one in that list is the radical for *"water"*, the last one is the radical for *"fire"*, and so on.

> **Comments:**
> **username_6**: As xiaohouzi79 said, the tone is not "guessable", but at least the rest is understandable.  
> **username_7**: Sometimes this similarities in parts of two character do match the same tone also, but all in all it's not an exact equivalence, and more a hint once you get to know a fair amount of characters.  
> **username_6**: Yes, @Petruza that's what I meant with my answer... It's more of a hint rather than a regular pattern or something similar.  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2011-12-13. Score: 7

Definitely not for the tone.

As far as pronunciation it is possible to guess from the right hand side of a character, but this is not something that is reliable.

e.g. 根,跟,很,恨,狠

All end in an "en" sound, but this is about as close as you will get.


---

### Answer by username_4 on 2011-12-14. Score: 5

too many characters can be classified into "形声字", which consists of two parts, one (the radical) indicates the topic the character is referred to and the another indicates the possible pronunciation.

xiaohouzi79 shows a good example. But remember, there are some commonly used characters that don't follow this, when you can't read a character, dictionary is your best teacher.

a counterexample is 垠（yin2），and there is a character very similar with 艮，良（liang2）

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: ``银`` and ``龈`` are also pronounced ``yin2``, so ``垠`` isn't really an exception. H  
> **username_5**: [Here's](http://chineseetymology.org/Phonetics.aspx?submitButton2=Phonetic&phoneticInputName=%E8%89%AE) a list of characters with the ``艮`` phonetic.  

---

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-04-28. Score: 1

80-90% of Chinese characters are classified as [phono-semantic compounds](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_classification#Phono-semantic_compound_characters). As the name suggests, these characters are composed of:

1. a phonetic component (*rebus*)
2. a semantic component (*determinative*)

Such characters are pronounced approximately the same as the rebus (subject to tone and initial consonants generally).

The phonetic component most often occurs on the right hand side of the character, but may also appear on the bottom (and more rarely in other positions):

> 有边念边，没边念中间吗，没有中间，自己编.

There are approximately ~1000 such phonetic components, so if you can recognise the majority of these you can approximate the majority of character pronunciations. For example:

| Determinative ╲ Rebus | 青 (qīng) | 及 (jí) | 可 (kě) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **氵** | 清 (qīng) | 汲 (jí) | 河 (hé) |
| **日** | 晴 (qíng) |  |  |
| **心** | 情 (qíng) | 忣 (jí) |  |
| **讠** | 请 (qǐng) |  |  |
| **米** | 精 (jīng) |  |  |

---

For other classes of words, or more opaque compounds, the pronunciation will just have to be memorised (like e.g. *through, cough, though, bough* in English).


---

