Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced chao
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced chao, including 朝 cháo / zhāo, 超 chāo, 潮 cháo, 吵 chǎo, 抄 chāo. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
chao begins with the tongue curled up and back for ch; let it slide straight into ao 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 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 (朝 cháo / zhāo, 超 chāo, 潮 cháo, 吵 chǎo, 抄 chāo) and lock in their tones. 7 common characters share the sound chao, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
chao 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: 超, 抄 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
2nd tone
Taking the 2nd tone here: 朝, 潮, 巢… (4 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 吵 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing chao inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
7 common characters in this group.