The character 口
And its component form
口
kǒu
- mouth
- classifier for things with mouths
The character 口 was created to look like the image of a mouth wide open. Do you see it?
口 is both a character and a character component
口 can be used as a meaning component in a Chinese character. You’ll find 口 in characters related to the mouth, openings and entrances. It can be found in characters that express the sun, doors, and more.
These characters all contain 口:
When used as a component, 口 can also be found in other words not related with openings and mouth.
The component 口 is easy to spot, it can be found in other words related to other themes such as sun or time.
口
You can find it in words like:
点 diǎn: o’clock
日 rì: sun; date
只 zhǐ: classifier for animals and birds
You’ll also find the meaning component 口 in many other Chinese characters. Browse the full list here.
All 80,000+ Chinese characters share the same character components. Character components are therefore essential for Chinese learners: they are the building blocks of Chinese. Character components help tremendously with understanding a character: they provide information on its meaning or on its pronunciation. In short, knowing character components will help you analyse, learn and remember each Chinese character much better.
Join us on Ninchanese as we teach you everything about the Chinese character components you need to know, little by little.