Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced chai
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced chai, including 差 chā / chà / chāi / cī, 柴 chái, 拆 chāi. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
chai begins with the tongue curled up and back for ch; let it slide straight into ai and carry the tone across the whole sound, rather than spelling out English letters.
Initial ch
Like zh, but with a clear puff of air.
Final ai
Settle the final ai into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (差 chā / chà / chāi / cī, 柴 chái, 拆 chāi) and lock in their tones. 3 common characters share the sound chai, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
chai turns up here with 2 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: 差, 拆 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
2nd tone
Taking the 2nd tone here: 柴 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing chai inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
3 common characters in this group.