Meaning
comma; phrase marked by pause; to read; to study
Chinese: 阅读。
Hear the Four Tones
The same syllable “du” becomes a different word in each tone. 读 is the 2nd tone. Tap any tone to hear a native voice and see its pitch shape.
Stroke Order
Tap Animate to watch the strokes in order, or Practice to trace it yourself.
Common Words
- 读书dú shūto read a book; to study; to attend school
- 读音dú yīnpronunciation; literary (rather than colloquial) pronunciation of a Chinese character
- 读者dú zhěreader
- 阅读yuè dúto read; reading
- 朗读lǎng dúto read aloud
Example Sentence
我喜欢在睡前读一会儿书。Wǒ xǐ huan zài shuì qián dú yí huìr shū.I like to read for a while before sleeping.
我wǒI喜欢xǐ huanto like在zàiat睡shuìto sleep前qiánfront读dòucomma一会儿yī huì ra moment书shūbook。
Go deeper
Where this character comes from
The speech radical 讠 (meaning) plus 卖 (sound): to voice words aloud — ‘to read’. Simplified from 讀.
A way to remember it
Speech (讠) + a sound — to read aloud.
Easy to confuse with
- 卖‘To sell’: the right-hand sound part of 读, on its own.