Learn Chinese Characters

Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced cong

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced cong, including 从 cōng / cóng / zòng, 匆 cōng, 聪 cōng, 丛 cóng. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

cong keeps the tongue flat behind the teeth for c (not curled), then glides into ong; say it in one beat and ride the tone through.

Initial c

Flat tongue with strong aspiration.

Final ong

ong sounds close to “ung”, not English “ong”.

Study Tip

Start with the most common characters (从 cōng / cóng / zòng, 匆 cōng, 聪 cōng, 丛 cóng) and lock in their tones. 4 common characters share the sound cong, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

cong 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: 从, 匆, 聪 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

2nd tone

Taking the 2nd tone here: 丛 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

Common Words With This Sound

Seeing cong inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.

Characters

4 common characters in this group.