Sound component
A sound or phonetic component hints at how the character is pronounced.
For example:
| Character | Sound component |
|---|---|
妈 mother | 马 horse |
问 to ask | 门 door |
想 to think | 相 mutual |
他 he | 也 also |
Sound components are color-coded as blue.
Historical sound changes
Sometimes a character does not sound similar to its sound component. Most Chinese characters were invented thousands of years ago. Since then, there have been many changes to the way people speak. For that reason, the sound components of some characters are leftovers from old Chinese pronunciation, and do not reflect modern pronunciation.
For example, in old Chinese, 他 was pronounced /*l̥ʰaːl/ and 也 was pronounced /*laːlʔ/, so 也 was used as a sound component in 他. These two characters no longer sound similar.