<p>地, the radical is 土.</p>

<p>It is made up of two parts, 土 and 也.</p>

<p>It is 形声字（<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_classification" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Phono-semantic compound characters</a>）, which means it is made up of two parts, one shows it meaning, the other shows its sound. According to <a href="http://www.zdic.net/z/17/sw/5730.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">说文解字 tab in zdic</a>, 也 is the sound part, though 也 and 地 sound very differently now:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>元气初分，輕清陽爲天，重濁陰爲地。萬物所陳也。<strong>从土也聲</strong>。墬，籒文地从■。徒内切〖注〗埊、■、嶳、埅，亦古文地。</p>
</blockquote>

<p>■ is a character that cannot be displayed here. Please check the site of zdic</p>

<p>球 is also a 形声字. The 王 part (which is the radical) carries the meaning, which was originally 玉 (jade), and the 求 part carries the sound.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-16T06:17:33.420Z
2017-10-16T06:17:33.420Z
fefe
<p>Just here to say that there's a misconception about 'radicals'—部首—in play here. Radicals are not what many people think of: "the things that Chinese characters are made out of"; rather, they are "the part of a given character that it gets sorted under in some dictionaries". Radicals as they are used today were invented by Mei Yingzuo and first appeared in his 1615 dictionary, Zihui 字彙. His idea was not to collect all the parts that might appear in any character, but rather to present a manageable catalog of (mostly) high-frequency components to make locating characters by appearance easier. While many characters did end up under the section header that also acts as the semantophore (the "meaning-part" of phono-semantic compounds) of that character, this is by no means true for all characters, and in many cases the choice is arbitrary. </p>

<p>BTW when you say "也 is a word not a radical", that's mixing up things, I'm afraid. 也 is a perfectly cromulent character, one that may be <em>used to</em> write one or more words. Any given character can (potentially) appear as a component in another character, it doesn't have to be in any list of dictionary radicals to do that. When you look under the hood (and maybe you should), things quickly get more complicated, because many components got abbreviated and / or conflated with other components.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-21T15:36:54.043Z
Thanks for this detailed explanation, I gathered from the other answers I had misunderstood what a radical was. What is the best way to "look under the hood" as you suggest? (I'm happy to ask that as a separate question, but I'm not sure how to even phrase it...)
cfogelberg
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-20T23:37:22.057Z
2017-10-20T23:37:22.057Z
John Frazer
<p>地 = 土 + 也</p>

<p>According to some researches, 也 means vagina in 甲骨文.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>《説文解字》：也，女陰也。象形。秦刻石也字。</p>
</blockquote>

<p>That makes sense, earth is mother of nature.</p>

<p>球 = 玉(originally) + 求</p>

<p>Handiwork of a ball of jade</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-16T06:01:08.583Z
All the sources I saw list 也 as the "sound" part of "地", though the pronunciations of the two characters are very different now.
fefe
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-16T05:53:49.927Z
2017-10-16T05:53:49.927Z
sfy
<p>as what you describe ,i guess you have already known that "地" is only made up by  left part and right part，and the right part should be as the whole part which cannot be divided.
so how to remember ,only practice ,practice and practice. 
however, what i will tell you is that chinese charactor writing has 6 basic "drawing"(we call "bihua笔画"): [1:一(heng /横)]、[2:丨(shu \竖)]、[3:丿(pie v撇)]、[4:丶(na \捺)or (xie / 斜)]、[5: (zhe /折or wan -弯)] and [6:(gou -钩)or （ti / 提）]
then 4:丶(na ) has two kinds:short(also call "dian v 点"(dot in english)) and long.
5: (zhe /) and 6:(gou -) should be combited with  [1:一(heng /)] OR [2:丨(shu )].
such as :1+5 we call hengzhe(),2+5 we call shuzhe()，2+6 we call shuti()or shugou(亅),1+6 we call henggou(乛), 5+6:wangou(㇁),2+5+6:shuwangou(乚);1+5+6:hengzhegou横折钩（㇆）、1+5+5+6:hengzhewangou横折弯钩（㇈、乙）、2+5+5+6:shuzhezhegou竖折折钩（㇉）、hengzhezhezhegou横折折折钩（）、hengpiewangou横撇弯钩（㇌）、shuwan竖弯（㇄）、hengzhezhe横折折（㇅）、hengzheti横折提（㇊）、hengpie横撇（㇇、フ）、hengzhezhepie横折折撇（㇋）、shuzhepie竖折撇（ㄣ）、shuzhezhe竖折折（）、piedian撇点（）、piezhe撇折（）、zhengzhezhezhe横折折折（㇎），xiegou斜钩（㇂）,hengxiegou横斜钩（⺄）
these are almost inclueded.</p>

<p>so let us back to your question , how to remember? for 地，you know its radical is 土，writing and read ： heng一shu丨ti/(ti is the deformation of heng which has the 45 angle),hengzhegou㇆,shu丨,shuwangou(乚).</p>

<p>ok,just write and read and practice. you will remember all.</p>

<p>more about “bihua”:<a href="https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%AC%94%E7%94%BB/3040863" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%AC%94%E7%94%BB/3040863</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-16T05:11:08.603Z
2017-10-16T05:42:47.767Z
2017-10-16T05:42:47.767Z
waves
<p>Have a look here:</p>

<p><a href="http://zhongwen.com/bushou.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://zhongwen.com/bushou.htm</a></p>

<p>Where it says pinyin, enter ye then press the button with o</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-15T22:20:13.767Z
2017-10-15T22:20:13.767Z
Pedroski
<p>What are the radicals that make up the character "地"?</p>

<p>Just from looking at it, it looks like "土" and "也" but "也" is a word not a radical.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=worddict&amp;wdrst=0&amp;wdqtm=0&amp;wdqcham=1&amp;wdqt=%E5%9C%B0%E7%90%83" rel="nofollow noreferrer">MDBG</a> also has this  break down, and in turn breaks "也" down to the "line" radical ("丨") and "乜" but as far as I can tell and also according to MDBG, "乜" isn't a radical or made up of radicals.</p>

<p>To return to my question: What are the radicals that make up the character "地"?</p>

<hr>

<p>The context to this is that I have just started using mnemonic stories to help me learn new words and their characters. This question has come up with 地球, which means "Earth".</p>

<p>My current mnenomic story uses:</p>

<ul>
<li>地: soil, "also"</li>
<li>球: king, demand</li>
</ul>

<p>And so I have, "the soil was also the king's demand". But I'd rather use the canonical radicals and learn things properly!</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-15T23:57:35.627Z
球 means "ball", and the left part, the 王 (king) radical, is originally 玉(jade).
Huang
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-16T01:13:11.333Z
do you mean components or radicals? characters only have one radical - but multiple components.
Mou某
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-16T06:06:21.950Z
If you are making mnemonic stories, it only has to make sense to you.
fefe
<characters><radicals>
What are the radicals that make up 地?
# What are the radicals that make up 地?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-10-15)

What are the radicals that make up the character "地"?

Just from looking at it, it looks like "土" and "也" but "也" is a word not a radical.

[MDBG](https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqtm=0&wdqcham=1&wdqt=%E5%9C%B0%E7%90%83) also has this break down, and in turn breaks "也" down to the "line" radical ("丨") and "乜" but as far as I can tell and also according to MDBG, "乜" isn't a radical or made up of radicals.

To return to my question: What are the radicals that make up the character "地"?

---

The context to this is that I have just started using mnemonic stories to help me learn new words and their characters. This question has come up with 地球, which means "Earth".

My current mnenomic story uses:

* 地: soil, "also"
* 球: king, demand

And so I have, "the soil was also the king's demand". But I'd rather use the canonical radicals and learn things properly!

**Tags:** characters, radicals
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: 球 means "ball", and the left part, the 王 (king) radical, is originally 玉(jade).  
> **username_2**: do you mean components or radicals? characters only have one radical - but multiple components.  
> **username_3**: If you are making mnemonic stories, it only has to make sense to you.  

---

## 5 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2017-10-16. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

地, the radical is 土.

It is made up of two parts, 土 and 也.

It is 形声字（[Phono-semantic compound characters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_classification)）, which means it is made up of two parts, one shows it meaning, the other shows its sound. According to [说文解字 tab in zdic](http://www.zdic.net/z/17/sw/5730.htm), 也 is the sound part, though 也 and 地 sound very differently now:

> 元气初分，輕清陽爲天，重濁陰爲地。萬物所陳也。**从土也聲**。墬，籒文地从■。徒内切〖注〗埊、■、嶳、埅，亦古文地。

■ is a character that cannot be displayed here. Please check the site of zdic

球 is also a 形声字. The 王 part (which is the radical) carries the meaning, which was originally 玉 (jade), and the 求 part carries the sound.


---

### Answer by username_4 on 2017-10-20. Score: 2

Just here to say that there's a misconception about 'radicals'—部首—in play here. Radicals are not what many people think of: "the things that Chinese characters are made out of"; rather, they are "the part of a given character that it gets sorted under in some dictionaries". Radicals as they are used today were invented by Mei Yingzuo and first appeared in his 1615 dictionary, Zihui 字彙. His idea was not to collect all the parts that might appear in any character, but rather to present a manageable catalog of (mostly) high-frequency components to make locating characters by appearance easier. While many characters did end up under the section header that also acts as the semantophore (the "meaning-part" of phono-semantic compounds) of that character, this is by no means true for all characters, and in many cases the choice is arbitrary.

BTW when you say "也 is a word not a radical", that's mixing up things, I'm afraid. 也 is a perfectly cromulent character, one that may be *used to* write one or more words. Any given character can (potentially) appear as a component in another character, it doesn't have to be in any list of dictionary radicals to do that. When you look under the hood (and maybe you should), things quickly get more complicated, because many components got abbreviated and / or conflated with other components.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks for this detailed explanation, I gathered from the other answers I had misunderstood what a radical was. What is the best way to "look under the hood" as you suggest? (I'm happy to ask that as a separate question, but I'm not sure how to even phrase it...)  

---

### Answer by username_5 on 2017-10-16. Score: 1

地 = 土 + 也

According to some researches, 也 means vagina in 甲骨文.

> 《説文解字》：也，女陰也。象形。秦刻石也字。

That makes sense, earth is mother of nature.

球 = 玉(originally) + 求

Handiwork of a ball of jade

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: All the sources I saw list 也 as the "sound" part of "地", though the pronunciations of the two characters are very different now.  

---

### Answer by username_6 on 2017-10-16. Score: 0

as what you describe ,i guess you have already known that "地" is only made up by left part and right part，and the right part should be as the whole part which cannot be divided.
so how to remember ,only practice ,practice and practice.
however, what i will tell you is that chinese charactor writing has 6 basic "drawing"(we call "bihua笔画"): [1:一(heng /横)]、[2:丨(shu \竖)]、[3:丿(pie v撇)]、[4:丶(na \捺)or (xie / 斜)]、[5: (zhe /折or wan -弯)] and [6:(gou -钩)or （ti / 提）]
then 4:丶(na ) has two kinds:short(also call "dian v 点"(dot in english)) and long.
5: (zhe /) and 6:(gou -) should be combited with [1:一(heng /)] OR [2:丨(shu )].
such as :1+5 we call hengzhe(),2+5 we call shuzhe()，2+6 we call shuti()or shugou(亅),1+6 we call henggou(乛), 5+6:wangou(㇁),2+5+6:shuwangou(乚);1+5+6:hengzhegou横折钩（㇆）、1+5+5+6:hengzhewangou横折弯钩（㇈、乙）、2+5+5+6:shuzhezhegou竖折折钩（㇉）、hengzhezhezhegou横折折折钩（）、hengpiewangou横撇弯钩（㇌）、shuwan竖弯（㇄）、hengzhezhe横折折（㇅）、hengzheti横折提（㇊）、hengpie横撇（㇇、フ）、hengzhezhepie横折折撇（㇋）、shuzhepie竖折撇（ㄣ）、shuzhezhe竖折折（）、piedian撇点（）、piezhe撇折（）、zhengzhezhezhe横折折折（㇎），xiegou斜钩（㇂）,hengxiegou横斜钩（⺄）
these are almost inclueded.

so let us back to your question , how to remember? for 地，you know its radical is 土，writing and read ： heng一shu丨ti/(ti is the deformation of heng which has the 45 angle),hengzhegou㇆,shu丨,shuwangou(乚).

ok,just write and read and practice. you will remember all.

more about “bihua”:<https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%AC%94%E7%94%BB/3040863>


---

### Answer by username_7 on 2017-10-15. Score: 0

Have a look here:

<http://zhongwen.com/bushou.htm>

Where it says pinyin, enter ye then press the button with o


---

