Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced cao
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced cao, including 草 cǎo, 操 cāo, 曹 cáo. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words, and example sentences.
How to Pronounce This Syllable
To say cao, use a flat-tongue c, slide into ao, and lay the tone on top — it is one sound, not the letters read separately.
Initial c
Flat tongue with strong aspiration.
Final ao
Settle the final ao into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (草 cǎo, 操 cāo, 曹 cáo) and lock in their tones. 3 common characters share the sound cao, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
cao turns up here with 3 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.
1st tone
Taking the 1st tone here: 操 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
2nd tone
Taking the 2nd tone here: 曹 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 草 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing cao inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
3 common characters in this group.